FOLLOWING the Government's announcement that it had chosen not to name a consortium led by Bombardier as the preferred bidder for the £7.5bn Intercity Express Programme a year ago, the Derby Telegraph launched its Change Track campaign.

The Department for Transport's decision to choose Agility Trains, a consortium led by Japanese manufacturer Hitachi, caused widespread anger in the city as Bombardier faced a gap in its order book, which would mean redundancies.

Change Track attracted support from politicians, leading city figures, key organisations and the public.

Almost 2,500 people signed a petition calling on the Government to back Bombardier.

To support Bombardier's case the Telegraph compiled a detailed 27-page business case setting out the reasons why the Government needed to award it contracts.

The document set out a number of questions, which the Department for Transport failed to answer adequately.

These included whether Agility would be able to deliver on its promise of creating or safeguarding 12,500 UK jobs.

It argued against the fact that 30% of the contract – £2.25bn – would be spent in Japan and not the UK and asked for more details on Agility's plans to open a UK factory and whether technology will be transferred to create a proper manufacturing plant.

The business case set out the threat to Bombardier if the Government decides not to award the company any of its impending contracts.

These questions were set to be discussed with the then Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon in July but just days before that meeting was due to take place Mr Hoon resigned.

His successor, Lord Adonis, opted not to meet the Change Track delegation and instead Derby North MP Bob Laxton passed on a file to him containing the evidence.

The campaign is now hoping the DfT will award the £1.4bn Thameslink contract to Bombardier and protect UK jobs.