Information contained in this news release is current as of the date of the press announcement, but may be subject to change without prior notice.
March 15, 2012
Trains for London designed in London
LONDON, March 15, 2012 - The Royal College of Art (RCA) Vehicle Design programme and Hitachi Rail Europe are today announcing their plans for a joint project to design a train for London, in London.
The RCA is renowned for automotive design and are now expanding their area of expertise into public transportation design. Professor Dale Harrow, Head of the RCA Vehicle Design programme said: "The time is right for us to get involved in public transportation design, especially in our home town, London. There are a number of exciting projects in the pipeline, and we are keen to show the College's design capability in this area. Our first train project will focus on Crossrail and London Underground's deep tube EVO trains. The Vehicle Design programme has helped many automotive companies with innovative solutions to everyday design problems, and we will do the same for trains."
Chiaki Ueda, Chairman of Hitachi Rail Europe adds: "Our design team will carefully evaluate the ideas the students develop and integrate the best ideas into our existing train designs. This will help us to create exceptionally reliable trains that will become as iconic and unique as the Class 395, currently operating between St Pancras and Kent."
Professor Dale Harrow continued: "We are fortunate to have Hitachi Rail Europe as our partner for this new venture. Hitachi has successfully delivered the Class 395 train and has been selected as the train builders for the Intercity Express Programme. Working with a leading train manufacturer will ensure that the students have access to up-to-date technology and expertise in rolling stock design, while developing their own creative ideas."
Chiaki Ueda adds: "Hitachi has ambitious plans to build a manufacturing facility for our UK and European customers in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. We also have plans for a Research & Development centre there. This is our first project with the RCA, and we see it as a starting point of our UK and European focussed R&D activity. We are really looking forward to working with the RCA and expanding our mutual activities in the coming years."
Students will be working on their design ideas over the coming months and present them in an exhibition in London in early September. The best concepts will be exhibited at the Hitachi stand at this year's InnoTrans in September in Berlin.
Celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, the Royal College of Art is the world's most influential postgraduate university of art and design. Specialising in teaching and research, the RCA offers the degrees of MA, MPhil and PhD across the disciplines of fine art, applied art, design, communications and humanities. There are over 1,100 masters and doctoral students and more than a hundred professionals interacting with them - including scholars, leading art and design practitioners, along with specialists, advisors and distinguished visitors.
www.rca.ac.uk
Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Europe, Ltd. and is headquartered in London, UK.
Hitachi Rail Europe is a total railway system supplier offering rolling stock, traction equipment, signalling, traffic management systems, and maintenance depots.
Hitachi draws on many years of experience as a leading supplier of high-speed trains such as the Shinkansen (bullet train) for the Japanese and international markets. In Europe, Hitachi Rail Europe's first rolling stock contract was to deliver a fleet of 29 Class 395 trains, the first domestic high-speed train in the UK. The trains are maintained at Hitachi's state of the art depot in Ashford, Kent.
For more information about the company, please visit: www.Hitachirail-eu.com
Hitachi Europe Ltd., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., Japan. Headquartered in Maidenhead, UK, it has operations in 11 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and employs approximately 460 people.
Hitachi Europe comprises of nine business areas: rail systems; power and industrial systems; information systems; digital media and consumer products; display products; industrial components and equipment; air conditioning and refrigeration systems; manufacturing systems; and procurement and sourcing. Hitachi Europe also has three Research and Development laboratories and a design centre. For more information about the company, please visit http://www.hitachi.eu.
