Students at the new National College for High Speed Rail are to get hands-on experience with the kind of trains they will be dealing with when HS2 eventually begins operations.

The college, which has its main campus in Birmingham (with a subsidiary in Doncaster), is set to receive a donation of two train carriages from Alstom and Eurostar.

Alstom built the UK’s first high-speed trains for Eurostar, and these have carried over 160 million passengers between the UK and mainland Europe.

Following Eurostar’s decision to retire some of the hard-working units that formed the ‘nose’ and ‘tail’ of those trains, two of them are being fully refurbished by Alstom and handed over to the college.

The new college is set to begin its first courses in September, and it is hoped that the ‘locos’ will be in place by then.

Alstom director Jason Baldock said: “HS2 will bring huge benefits to passengers, but even more crucial is the legacy of skills, apprenticeships and jobs it will create. This is why Alstom and Eurostar are donating these two units to the National College for High Speed Rail.”

Alstom is also building its own training academy in Widnes, as part of a new technology centre that will initially support 65 apprenticeships.