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Trainmaker Bombardier will go head-to-head against Siemens again in the battle to win an order to produce the trains for London’s Crossrail system, it has emerged.
Bombardier – which controversially lost out to the German firm in a £1.6 billion bidding war to supply trains for Thameslink, leading to the loss of 1,400 jobs at the Derby company – will also compete against Hitachi Rail of Japan and Spain’s CAF to supply the Crossrail trains. The deal is worth £1 billion.
Sixty trains will be built. Bidders will be asked to specify from where each element of the contract would be sourced and also “required to establish an appropriate local presence to manage the delivery of the contract,” said the government.
Transport secretary Justine Greening said that across the transport sector the government wanted “to improve dialogue with suppliers and increase the long-term visibility of forthcoming contracts in order to strengthen the capability of the UK supply chain”.
The Crossrail contract will be awarded in spring 2014. Crossrail, which will run from Maidenhead in Berkshire to Shenfield in Essex, is due for completion in 2018. The contract will also include the building of a depot at Old Oak Common in west London.
Greening said: “A number of outcomes from the government’s review of public procurement have been reflected in this procurement, which could bring opportunities to UK businesses.
“This includes a ‘responsible procurement’ requirement that means bidders will need to set out how they will engage with the wider supply chain and provide opportunities for training, apprenticeships and for small and medium-size businesses within their procurement strategy.”
Bob Crow, leader of the RMT union, said: “We will be monitoring the Crossrail process closely for any repeat of the Thameslink fiasco.
“We expect engineering excellence and socio-economic factors to be top of the tendering criteria to give Bombardier a proper chance this time around, unlike the Thameslink scandal.”