Emma hosted a parliamentary reception on Tuesday on behalf of Alstom, a company operating in the railway sector. Alstom runs the Oxley Train Care Centre in Wolverhampton, which it uses to maintain and improve the Virgin Pendolino trains operating on the West Coast Main Line.

Speaking at the reception, Emma welcomed the investment Alstom has made in Wolverhampton. She said, “Alstom employs 180 people at their Train Care Centre based in Oxley. The site carries out vital work on the trains running on the West Coast main line, one of the most important lines in the United Kingdom.

“There has been a rail facility on the site in Oxley dating back to 1907 and it has seen significant investment in recent years. In 2015, £5.1m was spent on a project to improve the capacity of 21 Pendolino trains. This created employment for an extra 32 people from the local area, and put £1m into local companies through the Alstom supply chain.

“I welcome this kind of long-term investment in jobs and skills in the local area and am very pleased to have the opportunity to host Alstom and hear about their ambitious and exciting plans for the future.

“It was a pleasure to see a model of the new train that they are putting forward to HS2. It’s a double decker train which would be very different to the kind of train we see in the UK today.”