Talking Point: Time Bomb
Michelle Craven, vice chair of Derby and Derbyshire Rail Forum, dicusses the impact of Crossrail's decision to delay its £1bn rolling stock contract, and the impact it could have on Bombardier.
The announcement concerning Crossrail is an interesting one for many reasons.
The first point to note is that the year long delay to the procurement process, with tenders not now issued until next year, will mean that rolling stock is not required to be introduced until May 2017 rather than December 2016.
It is understood that one of the reasons for the delay to the procurement process is to ensure that the rolling stock is not delivered before it is needed, bringing about a saving to the taxpayer. Value for money is the phrase of the day and something to be championed in the rail industry, especially following the publication of Sir Roy McNulty’s paper earlier this year
It is also true to say that this delay must surely allow time for the procurement process to be considered fully to ensure that it takes into account any recommendations that flow from next week's Transport Select Committee. No doubt further investigations will follow as the controversy surrounding the Thameslink decision continues to be a focal point of many debates, public meetings and protests.
The hope is of course that this will then lead to a procurement process which takes into account, as much as it is able to do so, the social economic impact that orders of this size can have on our local market.
That said, will this delay bring about any further consequences for an already nervous UK rail industry? It is now 876 days since an actual order has been placed for any new UK trains. An inherent problem since privatisation has been the long periods of no orders followed by a surge of orders all at the same time.
This has made forward planning for those involved in the manufacture and supply of rolling stock almost impossible. Both the Thameslink and Crossrail tenders have been the subject of discussion and rounds of previous tendering since the late 1990’s. So is there a chance that the tender date for Crossrail will be moved again?
It is also worth noting that despite the controversy surrounding the decisions neither of the contracts for Thameslink or IEP have been signed as yet. So just because a preferred bidder is announced does not mean that the Contract has been signed and work has commenced.
So in summary, whilst we must welcome any move to implement changes to the current procurement process, until a wider review of the system of order placement has been undertaken and changes made to move away from the feast or famine endured by the rail industry for so long, the UK based rail industry will have to wait to see what the future is, if any, for UK based rolling stock manufacture.
Michelle Craven is vice chair of Derby and Derbyshire Rail Forum and specialist rail lawyer at Nelsons.
