William Cook Rail has won export orders that it said could be worth “millions of pounds” to supply critical components to a world leader in light rail systems.
The family-owned business will manufacture structural parts for bogies on Alstom’s range of Citadis Spirit light rail vehicles for service in Ottawa, Canada.
The complex and highly specified cast steel components will be precision engineered at the company’s new £15m rail plant in Leeds.
The Citadis Spirit vehicles are designed for high capacity transport of passengers between suburban areas and the city centre and can operate in the most extreme weather conditions.
Sir Andrew Cook, chairman of William Cook Rail said: “We have invested millions of pounds in William Cook Rail to allow it to compete on a global level. “These export orders demonstrate the world-class engineering capabilities that exist here in the North of England and send a n message to the Government that’; ‘buying British’ must be at the top of the political agenda if it wants to have a successful and thriving economy post Brexit.”