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£12m train deal safeguards jobs
Train manufacturer Alstom has secured a £12m deal which will see its factory in Preston provide an overhaul of hundreds of engines.
The firm expects the 18-year deal to supply a number of major train operators with 700 traction motors, spare parts management and engineering services to safeguard jobs.
Since February, it has recruited 50 staff at its landmark building on Strand Road in the city, boosting staff numbers to 270.
Spokesman Helen Connelly said the facility had become "an international centre of excellence" for traction motor overhauls.
She said: "This work is obviously very positive for our Preston facility and comes alongside the range of other major contracts staff there are working on.
"It is an 18-year contract with a number of considerable train operators and therefore as near to a safeguard for workers there as you can get."
She added workers at the Preston site were also supporting Alstom's engineering experts in Bologna, Italy with a major contract for Pendolino trains, used by Virgin Trains.
It is providing the traction cases for the technology, which is assembled on the continent.
Mrs Connelly said: "The Preston facility is a unique railway centre with a homegrown workforce of engineering experts at a time when the engineering industry has been through a tough time.
"We see a very bright future for the Preston plant."
In 2006, an application to demolish the Alstom building, which is not listed, and build 330 flats, offices and a health centre was submitted by developers St Modwen Properties.
However, Alstom has insisted it has a lease for the property until 2018 and has no plans to leave.
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Weather for Preston
Tuesday 07 February 2012
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