Workers at Dunedin's Hillside Engineering workshops hope to benefit from a Spanish company's $500 million deal to build electric trains for Auckland.
The deal unveiled yesterday would see Spanish supplier CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) building 57 three-car trains for Auckland between September 2013 and the end of 2014, as well as maintaining them over the next decade.
The deal has also raised hopes the Hillside workshops could secure work as a sub-contractor to CAF, Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) Hillside branch chairman Stuart Johnstone said.
Mr Johnstone, who also works at Hillside, told the Otago Daily Times CAF had approached the union to discuss the company's intentions, and the union planned to make its own approach now the contract was confirmed.
"We believe their intention is to do some local content work as part of the contract ... we'd certainly be hoping that some of that work will come to Dunedin."
If that proved to be the case, more workers would probably be needed at the Hillside workshop to meet demand, he said.
Yesterday's announcement follows KiwiRail's decision to buy rolling stock and electric units overseas rather than have them built in New Zealand.
That led to the cutting of 44 jobs at Hillside in South Dunedin, prompting a wave of protests and calls for the overseas purchase to be reconsidered.
It was confirmed yesterday CAF had already established a New Zealand subsidiary company, CAF NZ Ltd.
CAF NZ Ltdwould provide an unquantified number of jobs at a maintenance depot to be built at Wiri, in Auckland, by Auckland Transport.
Mr Johnstone said Hillside was "obviously very well set up" to do other work for the company, such as component construction, which could be transported to Auckland by rail and assembled there.
"We're obviously hopeful we will get some of it down here in Dunedin, but I think it's a positive move for manufacturing in New Zealand - wherever it gets done."
Mr Johnstone said talks with senior union members and KiwiRail over the coming days would give "more of an indication" of what was possible.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce - whose Government would cover more than half the cost of the new trains - said the deal would support the regional and national economy, by keeping the country's largest city moving.
Dunedin South MP Clare Curran yesterday called for Mr Joyce to show "the colour of his money" and detail how many of the new jobs would be offered to Hillside workers.
A spokeswoman for Mr Joyce, asked later about the possibility of work coming to Dunedin, referred ODT questions to KiwiRail.
KiwiRail spokeswoman Kimberley Brady said any decisions about where work was carried out would be up to CAF, and KiwiRail was not talking to the company "about that specifically".
CAF NZ representatives could not be contacted last night.
- Additional reporting APNZ
