Posted 29th October 2010 | 2 Comments
Eurostar wins court battle over new trains with Alstom
A Siemens-built Deutsche Bahn ICE went on show at St Pancras earlier this month. Eurostar also intends to buy from the same manufacturer
EUROSTAR has fended off a court challenge from the French train-builder Alstom, which had been trying to stop an order for ten Siemens trains from going ahead by arguing that there were safety issues.
Eurostar is planning to order ten Siemens Velaro trains worth a reported £525 million, which it wants to introduce on new routes in 2014 to cities such as Geneva, Lyon and Amsterdam.
The French company was claiming that Siemens trains would breach Channel Tunnel safety rules, and also challenged Eurostar's procurement process.
However, a High Court judge refused Alstom's application for an injunction this afternoon.
After the ruling, Eurostar said: "We are very pleased that the situation has been resolved and we can proceed to signing the contract for our new fleet of trains with Siemens.
"We have always been confident that we conducted a rigorous tender process and have chosen the best trains for our passengers.
"With our current fleet upgraded and our new fleet of trains in place we will be able to offer our customers a real alternative to taking the plane for short haul European travel.”
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
H. Harvey, Birmingham
The decision is good news for rail and I had Alstom won the case they and future expansion of services through the tumnnel would have suffered.
Any expansion of the super safety culture on rail weakens rails competitive position.
Rail is already safer than other modes and if there were any sanity the powers that be would be pushing safety on other modes and removing some of the sillier super safety issues that result in rail schemes costing so much.
Lorentz, London
This is the right outcome, and demonstrates that taking the issue to the courts was the correct approach.
There is concern however that the issue is not fully resolved. The BBC is reporting that the Judge said there were breaches of the tendering process. This being the case, there are likely to be further legal challenges.