Final plans for Siemens’ £200m train manufacturing facility in Goole are expected to be submitted in the coming weeks.
The development, which would initially build tube trains for London’s Piccadilly Line, hopes put the East Yorkshire town at the forefront of the UK’s rail industry.
Project director Finbarr Dowling has now revealed a detailed planning application for phase one of Siemens’ factory in Goole should be submitted to East Riding Council later this month.
It comes as Siemens also awaits the green light from council planners on proposals for a on the same site.
Mr Dowling said: “We have always felt there was a lot more to do at a place like Goole.
“Everyone knows we will manufacture trains there for Transport for London, and we will be bidding for other work to follow on from that.
“In the future, we also want to do work in robotics, artificial intelligence and data analytics. In the rail industry in general that is where the advances are to be made.”
The numbers surrounding Siemens’ planned rail factory in Goole are well documented.
Up to 700 jobs and £200m of investment was announced way back in 2018, and now Siemens has unveiled plans for a focused on innovation and R&D.
Siemens said it hoped to hear back from East Riding Council on its innovation centre plans in the spring.
The £6m building will be the first phase of an innovation cluster known as the Rail Accelerator and Innovation Solutions Hub for Enterprise (RaisE), which will complement the £200m rail manufacturing facility.
It will offer a high-quality facility for start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), predominantly linked to rail industry supply chains and include spaces for collaboration, possibly on a cross-sector basis.
Detailed plans for phase one of Siemens’ manufacturing plant will be submitted this month.
If planning is, as hoped, approved for that development by summer, construction could begin in July or August.
Siemens’ ambition for Goole is a major commitment to East Yorkshire, on the back of its £200m wind turbine blade factory in Hull.
Mr Dowling said: “In Hull, 97 per cent of staff employed at the blade factory are from the local area.
“We also want to have a strong focus on recruitment from the region for jobs in Goole.
“As we have been talking about these proposals, some people have been saying to me ‘why Goole?’ But I have always replied ‘why not Goole?’
“The area has so much potential. It has some fantastic providers of education. Why should the transport solutions for England not be pioneered from the North of England, creating a dynamic community in Goole?
“I spent time recently at Wyke College in Hull – a fantastic place – talking to young people about future careers in data analytics. We have some brilliant data scientists, but unfortunately a lot are based in the South of England. Why can that not be here?
“You look at Ron Dearing UTC in Hull. That is on the site of a derelict former fire station. Now it is fully subscribed, and I am not surprised at all.”
Siemens’ train factory in Goole will also create a string of apprenticeships.
Those selected will initially spend a period of time in education, before travelling with Siemens to Vienna in Austria to spend six months learning the technologies required.
They will then return to Goole, to start working on the site.
Mr Dowling said he hoped Siemens’ commitment to the East Yorkshire town would have wider benefits for Goole.
He said simply: “If you build it, they will come.”
