Japan’s Hitachi has underlined the seriousness of the competitive threat it poses to Europe’s major trainmakers by clearing the first hurdle towards winning one of the UK’s largest train orders.

Hitachi pre-qualified to bid for the £1.4bn ($2.8bn) order for 1,100 carriages for the cross-London Thameslink route along with Europe’s big three rolling stock manufacturers – Bombardier Transportation, Alstom Transport and Siemens.