The £1bn plan to electrify the rail route between Bristol and London could create 200 jobs at a new rail maintenance depot in Stoke Gifford, close to Bristol Parkway Station.
Hitachi Rail Europe is reported to be in talks with South Gloucestershire Council about using land owned by Network Rail known as the Stoke Gifford Railway Triangle. It is currently leased to a company which reclaims building waste. Although the new 'super-express' trains will be made by the giant Japanese Hitachi group at a new plant in County Durham, they will need to maintained and serviced closer to where they are operating.
The trains will be faster, greener and carry a fifth more passengers than the outdated Inter-City power carriages and rolling stock now serving the route. Journey times between Bristol and London will be reduced by around 22 minutes – meaning the fastest service between Bristol Parkway and Paddington will be just over an hour.
South Gloucestershire transport boss Brian Allinson told the BBC: "We haven't yet had any planning application arrive – we're expecting that later in the year.
"When you look at it and realise the mainlines all converge at that point, it is quite a sensible place to put it."
