DLA Piper has advised Agility Trains on the £5.7 billion project financing of the Government-led Intercity Express Programme, the first phase of which, comprising 57 new Class 800 Hitachi trains, went into passenger service between Bristol and Paddington in front of Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

The new high speed trains are a renewal of the ageing Intercity 125 fleet, which was first introduced in 1976, and will go on to replace fleets across the country. The launch is the beginning of a huge change for passengers that will deliver faster, more comfortable, better connected trains, with an extra 4,000 extra seats into London Paddington in the morning and more than 12,000 extra seats into London Kings Cross by the end of 2020.

The Intercity Express Programme, funded by Agility Trains, has brought together Hitachi Rail, GWR, Virgin Trains East Coast and Network Rail to design, develop and build the new class of state-of-the-art, modern trains and supporting depot infrastructure for the Great Western and East Coast routes.

Agility Trains West, which is funding the fleet which went into service with GWR today, is a consortium of Hitachi Rail Europe, John Laing Group and John Laing Infrastructure Fund.

Colin Wilson, UK Head of Infrastructure who led the DLA Piper team, said: "We are extremely proud of having supported Agility Trains on what is one of the largest, most ambitious and complex PPP projects to date, creating over 730 new jobs in the rail industry, 200 in construction and thousands more in the supply chain. It is particularly satisfying to see everyone's hard work pay off with the new Hitachi high speed trains successfully entering into service."

DLA Piper provided full-service support on all aspects of finance, commercial, restructuring and corporate law together with support from lawyers in real estate, employment, environmental and regulatory law.