The government is facing a fresh HS2 headache after the firm set to build the project’s trains delivered a fleet so unreliable it has led to major service cuts between London and the North.
East Midlands Railway (EMR) has been forced to implement an emergency reduced timetable starting on Monday due to repeated problems with its new 810 Aurora fleet built by Hitachi.
The Japanese manufacturer, which has a factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, won the £400m contract to produce 33 trains to replace the existing 222 Meridian fleet in 2019.
The trains entered service in December 2025 – three years later than originally planned – but they have been beset by technical issues ever since.
After weeks of cancellations – some of which were blamed on the hot weather – EMR has admitted it will have to slash up to half of its services between London and destinations including Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby and Sheffield.
The announcement, which was communicated at around 3pm on Friday afternoon, has left local leaders furious.
Labour mayor for South Yorkshire Oliver Coppard says his residents face a “summer of chaos” on the railways and questioned why EMR did not indicate it would be reducing services sooner.
Insiders have said the fiasco will also put pressure on the government over its relationship with Hitachi which was handed a £2bn contract to build HS2’s trains in a joint venture with Alstom in 2021.
Reflecting on what has gone wrong at EMR, an industry insider said: “They [Hitachi] shouldn’t have bid for a contract they couldn’t really deliver.”
Experts question Hitachi’s ability to build bi-mode trains
Hitachi won a £400m contract to build the trains for East Midlands Railway (Photo: Hitachi)The 801 Aurora fleet is bi-mode, meaning it can be powered either by electric overhead lines or a diesel engine.
This was required because the Midland Main Line is not fully electrified, despite years of promises by different governments that it would be completed.
Labour paused the project indefinitely last summer, in part because of the new bi-mode trains that had been built for EMR.
Roger Ford, industry and technology editor at Modern Railways magazine, wrote on X: “The basic problem with the Class 810 is that EMR ordered a train that didn’t exist from a manufacturer with no experience of that type of duty. The train had to match the 125 mile/h performance of the Class 222 – both diesel powered and under the wires. Was it a bi-mode too far?”
Meanwhile, Hitachi’s work on 54 trains for Phase One of HS2 is already underway and Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met bosses in Japan as recently as this month where she praised the company and said Britain should be looking to emulate its famous ‘bullet trains’.
Chris Howe, freelance transport and engineering journalist, told The i Paper there are questions to be asked of both Hitachi and the government over the meltdown at EMR.
“Hitachi has a good reputation at building trains, but you do have to question their ability to deliver these bi-mode models,” he said.
“With HS2, the trains will be electrified, they will be working with Alstom so they should have the expertise to deliver.
“But we do have to ask some serious questions – Hitachi should be able to sort out these problems.
“The government should be bringing them in, Hitachi bosses should be in front of a select committee getting asked what has gone wrong and how they’re going to rectify it.”
Setback comes at ‘frustrating time for railways’
The setback comes as Labour is set to continue its nationalisation of the railways under the banner of Great British Railways (GBR).
EMR is due to come under public ownership once the current contract expires in October 2026.
Howe said that should put further pressure on the government to sort out the failing Hitachi fleet.
“They [the government] won’t want to inherit this problem,” he added.
Labour has promised major improvements to the railways under its nationalisation plans (Photo: Charlotte Coney/Getty Images)“When they take over this service they will want to show they can improve it and if they have got trains that are failing they will want to fix it quickly.”
Howe added that the problem with Hitachi’s EMR trains suggests there could be reliability for bi-mode trains more widely.
“It’s such a frustrating time for the railways,” he added.
In an interview with this paper, Andy Burnham said he would resurrect the axed northern leg of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester after it was cut amid fears of costs ballooning to £36bn.
“I am absolutely clear, I’ve seen it myself in terms of expansion of our travel system,” he says. “If you put that infrastructure in, it lays the foundations for higher growth. The lack of high-quality rail infrastructure in the north of England holds back its growth potential.”
The Department for Transport (DfT) was contacted for comment.
A Hitachi Rail spokesperson said: “The Class 810 fleet has been in passenger service with East Midlands Railway since December 2025 and more than a third of the fleet has now been delivered.
“Hitachi Rail continues to work closely with all industry partners during the entry-into-service phase of the Class 810 fleet, implementing improvements and supporting the transition from the existing fleet to new Aurora trains.
“We remain focused on delivering the remainder of the fleet and supporting East Midlands Railway as more new trains enter passenger service. As part of this commitment, we are investing in additional testing activity at Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre to improve fleet introduction and delivery of the remaining trains.”
Will Rogers, Managing Director at East Midlands Railway, said: “The performance of the Class 810 fleet has fallen below the levels we and our customers expect, and it is necessary to introduce a temporary reduced timetable while we work with the manufacturer, Hitachi Rail, to improve consistency in service.
“We recognise that this will be disappointing for customers, and we understand the frustration caused when our Intercity services do not consistently meet the standards they rightly expect, which in turn puts our frontline staff in an unenviable position of trying to deliver excellent customer service amidst ongoing reliability challenges.
“We are sorry for the significant disruption and inconvenience these issues have caused our customers, and we are committed to restoring the reliable service they rightly expect.”
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