Out-Law News 1 min. read
02 Sep 2011, 9:42 am
The postponement will allow time for the process to take account of recommendations made by a review called by the Department of Transport following the decision to award a contract for 1,200 carriages for the cross-London Thameslink route to a German company.
The review could make it easier for UK factories to win orders. Bombardier, the Canadian owner of the UK's last train making facility in Derby, laid off nearly half of its 3,000 staff in July after losing the bid to Germany's Siemens.
A spokesman for the Crossrail project said the main reason for pushing back the award of the carriage contract was "to save costs due to shorter delivery timescales", but added that it would also allow "the conclusions of the Government's review of public procurement to be taken into account".
Under EU rules, member states cannot show domestic bias when awarding government-funded contracts.
"The review of public procurement is examining whether the UK is making best use of the application of EU procurement rules, as well as the degree to which the Government can set out requirements and evaluation criteria with a sharper focus on the UK's strategic interest and how the Government can support business and ensure that when they compete for work they are doing it on an equal footing with their competitors," said Crossrail in a statement.
Tendering for carriages had been due to begin this year with contracts being awarded in 2013. Tenders will now be issued in 2012, which will put back the introduction of the new rolling stock onto the existing rail network until May 2017, the company said.
It was also announced that France's Alstom had withdrawn from the contract bidding process, leaving a shortlist of four - Bombadier, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, Hitachi and Siemens - to compete for the work.
The Crossrail contract is for 60 train carriages which will operate on the existing UK rail network from May 2017 before being put into service on a new route across the capital. The Crossrail route, which runs between Heathrow in the west and Canary Wharf in the east of the city via new tunnels under central London, will open in 2019 and serve around 200 million passengers each year. Under the previous timetable, much of the fleet would have lain dormant until the new route opened, the company said.
