Bombardier and Hitachi challenge award of Deep Tube contract

Bombardier Transportation and Hitachi Rail Europe are taking action in the High Court in a bid to overturn Transport for London’s award of the Deep Tube Upgrade Programme contract to Siemens Mobility.

The companies submitted a joint venture bid for the Tube deal, along similar lines to their HS2 trains bid ( RAIL 857), but lost out to Siemens.

Siemens will supply 94 trains for the Piccadilly Line at an estimated cost of £1.5 billion, with a further 150 trains expected for the Central and Bakerloo lines worth an additional £1bn.

Bombardier and Hitachi filed papers with the High Court over the weekend of July 21/22. A joint statement said: “We can confirm that we have issued claims in the High Court against London Underground Ltd’s decision not to select our consortium bid for the Deep Tube Upgrade Programme.”

Transport for London refused to comment in detail, but in a statement it responded: “We have been notified by Hitachi Rail Europe Limited and Bombardier Transportation UK Limited that they have issued claim forms in the High Court in relation to the decision to award the Deep Tube Upgrade Programme contract to Siemens Mobility Limited.

“We will review these claims and will respond to them. We see no good basis for these claims to be issued and are disappointed that these companies have chosen to take this step. We are unable to make any further comment at this point.”