Evidence E- Labour calls for review of trains contract awarded to Siemens

• £3bn train contract to Siemens of Germany
• Awarded the Thames-link train deal to Siemens rather than the Bombardier factory in Derby "dealt a body-blow to British manufacturing."
• Could cost 20,000 jobs, including 6,00 people employed by the Bombardier in the UK
• Future train contracts, for cross-rail and HS2 projects, are likely to be titled in favor of the company
• Other European countries protect their industrial interests when handing out manufacturing contracts
• EU rules require equal, transparent and non-discriminatory treatment of bidders for government contracts
• Government industrial policy favoring protectionism is regulated against
• EU guidelines state governments must not base contract awards on a bidder's location or nationality 

17/6/2012 Guardian 

Siemens expects to finalise the £1.4bn Thameslink trains contract this summer, amid renewed calls to halt the process and award the deal to the Bombardier plant in Derby. On the first anniversary of the controversial decision to give a large procurement contract to a German manufacturer, Siemens said the agreement was close to being signed. The trains will be built at the company's Krefeld plant near Düsseldorf, which has led to calls by trade unions for government-backed manufacturing contracts to go to British businesses in the future.

Reports have suggested the eurozone crisis has created headwinds against Siemens securing debt financing for the contract.

Bombardier has cut 1,200 jobs at Britain's last remaining train factory since June last year, when the Thameslink decision was announced. It is now focusing on the next big government train contract, for the Crossrail project, which is worth £1bn. Bombardier has said the Crossrail contract is key to keeping the Derby site open and preserving its remaining 1,600 jobs. However, European Union procurement rules prohibit states from showing bias towards homegrown businesses when awarding contracts.

Scrimshaw has warned that any bias against non-UK bidders in the Crossrail process will have damaging consequences for British business. Nonetheless, in an effort to raise the chances of UK bidders, the tender document requires bidders to outline how their offers will benefit the UK economy.

Last week the RMT union claimed that the government should capitalise on the Thameslink delay by handing the contract to the runner-up, Bombardier. Bob Crow, the RMT's general secretary, said: "On the first anniversary of this act of industrial vandalism RMT is demanding an end to the whole long, drawn-out Thameslink fleet scandal and a cancellation of the failed Siemens deal in favour of Bombardier in Derby, where the skills and capacity to deliver these trains isn't bound up with the eurozone financial crisis."

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "it would have been impossible to change the terms of the procurement process set up by the last government without incurring huge delays to this important project."

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19/12/2012 Sim Harris Rail News interview 

The contract is running years late the prototype trains should be running now 

Siemens is having to run private sector money which is going up, Siemens has a better credit rating than Bombardier so it seems unlikely they will be able to do any better. The Government should have known they would of been criticised about this, their offer the price of the private sector contribution was lower - could raise money on the private market at a better rate because of their credit rating £500m pounds cheaper when the price of money is taken into consideration.

 Bombardier march in Derby against job losses

Philip Hammond Questioned by Bombardier Workers