Move Great British Railways to Doncaster and home of Flying Scotsman; here’s why – Dan Fell

The competition is fierce and with good reason. GBR’s HQ will bring hundreds of high-skilled jobs to the area that hosts it.

It will create many more in the broader rail sector that will benefit from the 
extra investment and talent it will 
attract.

That is why the business community in South Yorkshire and beyond are rock solid behind Doncaster’s bid for the new HQ.

We know that local feeling is crucial to the Government’s decision.

That’s why we are calling on the bid’s supporters among the public to make their voice heard. Please join us on social media and write to your MP.

Here’s why it must be Doncaster.

Our region has a long and world-famous association with rail expertise.

We built the Flying Scotsman and Mallard. Today we maintain the Azuma fleet of new LNER trains.

Our rail and logistics industry employs 20,000 people across 200 companies.

Whatever your focus within the sector, you can make your career here with the biggest-name employers.

Network Rail, Unipart Rail, Hitachi, DB Cargo, Volker Rail – all have chosen South Yorkshire.

Our region is at the cutting edge.

The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, which brings together leading producers from around the world, is based at the University of Sheffield.

And we train the industry – the National College of Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI) caters to the range of careers in rail.

Anyone working at or visiting the new HQ will find it easy to access.

It will be just a short walk from Doncaster’s East Coast Mainline 
station with fast onward connections 
by rail and road to the rest of the 
country.

At the centre of things, Doncaster is the natural choice for GBR’s HQ.

If we win, it will mark a major milestone in South Yorkshire’s economic revival.

I believe there has been a recent positive sea change in the way business, government and civil society groups work together to deliver growth in South Yorkshire.

It needed to happen.

For too long South Yorkshire has been a region that never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity –especially on national infrastructure investment.

But today I see new-found resolve. 
I see a determination in the faces of 
local business and civic leaders – ‘Team South Yorkshire’ – to roll up our 
collective sleeves and drive things forward.

The proposed site may be Doncaster, but this is very much South Yorkshire’s bid.

I hope and expect that this resolve 
was evident to the wider world at 
South Yorkshire’s first Economic Summit this month, where a confident vision 
for the future of the region was 
pitched.

That positivity is why I am going to resist the temptation to state that we should be the home of the GBR HQ 
for the reason that it will help the Government to deliver its ‘levelling up’ policy.

Yes, 50 per cent of residents in 
York – for example – have a degree compared to less than half of that 
amount 20 minutes down the East Coast Mainline in Doncaster, but I don’t 
want that to be the ultimate reason 
why South Yorkshire wins this 
bid.

I want South Yorkshire to win because we smash the remaining criteria out of the park.

If, indeed when, GBR locates to South Yorkshire, the organisation will be welcomed into our rail community and embraced by many businesses and partners.

The partnerships that GBR forms 
with those organisations will be many and varied; however, I can guarantee 
that they will not be characterised 
by a downbeat request for help but, instead, by an ambitious vision for the future.

It is that ambition that, I believe, is newly characterising South Yorkshire and that I know characterises the region’s GBR headquarters bid.

Dan Fell is chief executive of Doncaster Chamber 
of Commerce.

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