Hammond evaluated Thameslink bids ‘blind’


the Germans award contracts to German builders.


‘I think we have got to look at how we manage these things for the UK in the future.’ Condemning the awarding


of the contract to Siemens, the RMT has raised concerns about the company’s plans to use bogies which currently only exist on paper. Bombardier’s B5000 bogies, which would have been used on Thameslink had Bombardier won, have a proven track record, both in the UK and abroad. RMT general secretary Bob


Bombardier’s Litchurch Lane works


by Paul Clifton and Katie Silvester


Rail minister Theresa Villiers has admitted that the bids for the Thameslink rolling stock contract were assessed on an anonymised basis, which is standard DfT practice. Answering a written question


from shadow business secretary John Denman, she said that the bids were viewed without any consideration of the impact on British industry. The work went to Germany’s Siemens, meaning Bombardier, which would have built the units in Derby, lost out. More than 1,400 permanent


and temporary jobs are to be lost at Bombardier’s Derby works following the decision. The German company was


awarded preferred bidder status for the contract, worth more than £2bn, in June. Twelve thousand jobs in the UK


supply chain are also under threat, although Labour claimed the figure could be as high as 20,000.


Locals showed their support for


Bombardier when 10,000 people attended a rally in Derby organised by Unite on 23 July.


The Litchurch Lane works


has a Tube train contract that will continue until 2014, but this


PAGE 6 AUGUST 2011


will support only a few hundred jobs. Its other orders for London Underground and London Midland, will both be completed by the end of September.


Bombardier has started a 90-day statutory consultation process. Colin Walton, chairman of


Bombardier Transportation in the UK, said: ‘The loss of the Thameslink contract has forced us to conduct a review of our operations. This announcement is part of an on- going process. These are highly skilled people.’


The transport secretary, Philip


Hammond, said the job losses were ‘by no means’ all attributable to the Thameslink decision. He told the BBC: ‘Bombardier


has had a fantastic run of success; they have been building train orders for all sorts of companies over the last few years; they have geared up their labour force. ‘They always knew when those contracts came to an end, there would have to be some job losses. ‘The company wrote to me back in May and said that whatever the outcome of the Thameslink contract, regardless of whether they won or not, they would have to make 1,200 redundancies.’ Hammond said the Thameslink


procurement process had been started by the previous government,


and that under European procurement law he had no ability to influence the outcome. John Denham has called for an independent review of the process. He told the BBC: ‘In Germany, all the trains are German. In France, all the trains are built in France. It is much the same in Italy and Spain. Do they interpret the same rules differently from us?’


Hammond told the BBC: ‘I


think the question is whether the procurement was correctly framed. ‘The way some of our


continental partners approach these things is to look more strategically at the support of the domestic supply chain, and it is clear because the French routinely award contracts for trains to French builders and


Crow said: ‘It is extraordinary that the government has ignored the most basic piece of engineering in their awarding of the Thameslink contract to Siemens.’


n Though the DfT requires details of bids to be kept confidential, Bombardier most likely lost out on the Thameslink contract because the requirement to finance the 1,200 carriages would have left it at a competitive disadvantage. Siemens has a higher credit


rating than Bombardier, which would have made it eligible for loans at lower interest rates. On a contract of this size, the difference could have amounted to hundreds of millions of pounds.


n See Rail Professional opinion page 4 and Wright track 16-17 for comment


MPs investigate rolling stock procurement


The Transport Select Committee is to hold an investigation into UK rolling stock procurement. The committee will question witnesses about the decision to award the Thameslink contract to Siemens instead of to Britain’s last remaining train builder, Bombardier in Derby. It will also look at broader issues relating to the way rolling stock


is ordered. The first hearing will be on 7 September at the House of Commons.


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