Paul Maynard, the rail minister, said the £2.75 billion HS2 contract would create "thousands of skilled British jobs and apprenticeships" PAAll Britain’s main suppliers of rolling stock have been shortlisted to build the fastest and most prestigious trains on the UK network . The £2.75 billion tender for the 225mph trains for HS2 has also included a wild-card bid from the Spanish high-speed manufacturer Talgo, which has no rolling stock operating in the UK nor currently has any facilities in the country. The shortlist also has one high-profile absentee: the dominant Chinese high-speed manufacturer CRRC has not been invited to tender, an exclusion that would have seemed strange if the company’s biggest flagwaver in the UK, George Osborne, had still been chancellor. High Speed Two, the government agency charged with delivering the £55 billion London-Birmingham-Manchester-Leeds project, announced a shortlist of five to design and build…

Source: The Times November 02, 2017 12:00 UTC