Out of curiosity have Aventras been offered with battery or DMU?
Mentioned in dispatches, I think you can say. Even a 125mph bi-mode at one point.
But never taken up by the DfT/Roscos/TOCs who went to Hitachi or Stadler and now CAF for other than straight EMUs.
I didn't know, until reading this thread that the HS2 fleet will be produced in Derby...
That prospect doesn't fill me confidence.
That's not quite the position.
The HS2 rolling stock design and bid was a joint Hitachi-Bombardier effort, understood to be based on the Zefiro/Frecciarossa 1000 design for Trenitalia.
This was principally a Bombardier (Germany/Italy) design but built at the ex-Ansaldo Pistoia site which now belongs to Hitachi (where it built the class 802 fleet).
There isn't much Derby/Aventra content in the design.
During the Alstom-Bombardier takeover, new Alstom sold the Zefiro design to Hitachi to meet competition demands, so Hitachi own the design.
When the dust settled on the HS2 order and the Alstom-Bombardier merger, production is to be a 50-50 joint venture between Hitachi and Alstom.
Hitachi will produce the body shells at Newton Aycliffe, and Alstom at Derby will fit them out.
The components will come from all over, and the bogies will come from Alstom Crewe (ex-Bombardier).
The design is still in progress and details have not been finalised, nor delivery dates agreed.
HS2 has not even let the contracts to build the railway system yet.
There is work for 3 UK factories (Newton Aycliffe, Derby, Crewe) in the contract for 54x8-car trains, and maybe for other UK sites as subcontractors.