Watchdog stops Spanish passenger train procurement

Take note – story published 5 years ago

The Latvian Public Procurement Monitoring Bureau has banned Pasažieru Vilciens rail company from signing a train supply contract with Spain’s Patentes Talgo S.L. (Talgo), according to information posted on the bureau’s website.

The Public Procurement Monitoring Bureau has ruled to ban Pasažieru Vilciens from closing the deal with Talgo and has ordered the rail company to invalidate the results of its electric train tender.

Pasažieru Vilciens has been given 20 days to deal with the violations found in the procurement procedure and to reassess the bids submitted in the tender.

Pasažieru Vilciens representative Egons Alers told LETA that the rail company is strongly interested in the tender’s success.

“We are thanking the Public Procurement Monitoring Bureau for pointing out the flaws in the tender and we will deal with them right away,” said Alers.

Transport Minister Talis Linkaits (New Conservative Party) said: “We will go through the content of the Public Procurement Monitoring Bureau’s decision. Based on this, we will assess the company’s management and Pasažieru Vilciens’ responsibility for what has happened in the procurement process.”

As reported, Spanish company Talgo has won the tender to supply new passenger trains to Pasažieru Vilciens for €225,303,262. The contract price includes delivery of the trains and the equipment necessary for their maintenance, spare parts for the first five years and training of the personnel.

Pasažieru Vilciens CEO Rodzers Jānis Grigulis said that the bid submitted by the Spanish company was economically the most feasible for the train’s projected service life of 35 years. Asked about the prices offered by other bidders, Grigulis said that the next best offer had been €20 million costlier.

Pasažieru Vilciens in September 2015 started a new tender to purchase electric trains, and four bidders had advanced to the second stage of the tender – Spanish company Talgo, Polish subsidiary of Swiss company Stadler, Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A. (CAF), and Czech company Skoda Vagonka.

Skoda Vagonka and CAF have both appealed the outcome of the train supply tender.

Pasažieru Vilciens was established in 2001 to separate domestic passenger services from other functions performed by the state-owned Latvijas Dzelzceļš (Latvian Railways). Initially a 100-percent owned subsidiary of Latvian Railways, in October 2008 Pasažieru Vilciens was transformed into an independent state-owned company.

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