What does the Siemens/Alstom merger mean

Exclusive insight from Eye's man at today's press conference!

Ties abolished.

(You're fired! Ed)

CAF - Newport wins!

This from the Railway Gazette...

UK: Spanish rolling stock manufacturer CAF has selected the Celtic Business Park at the Llanwern steelworks site near Newport in South Wales as the location of its future UK factory.

Indeed.

And a big #RailwayFamily welcome to CAF.

You got to be in it, to win it!

Small glasses being raised in the Shire

Lots of chatter about Siemens and Bombardier merging.

Eye recommends not holding your breath, it will be... complicated.

Meanwhile, half glasses are being raised across the Shire, and possibly further South?

You can't beat a home brew.

If you want a job doing well...

Amidst all the glitz of the new Thameslink train unveiling on Tuesday was a small faux pas.

This from the St Albans and Harpenden Review:

Roger Perkins for First Capital Connect said: "The passenger information screen is just a mock-up of the real thing and its manufacturers were unable to correct the typo in time for the grand unveiling."

That bodes well. 

UPDATE: This from the Flan...

But they seem to have got away with the bigger faux pas in that there is no station called Luton Airport.

Siemens confirms Deutschland über alles!

This from Siemens...

In an email headed: Change of location for Siemens plc's Rail Systems Division from Westminster to Euston, we discover...

Siemens' new home at 24 Eversholt Street is of course better known to old railway hands as Euston House, the former HQ of the British Railways Board!

With one symbolic action the German takeover of Britain's railways is now complete.
 

Lookalike - Rail in t'North edition

Pictured are Siemens Rail Systems' supremo Steve Scrimshaw and Nick Donovan, MD of First Transpennine.

Eye defies readers to tell them apart!

Look closely at the name badges...

Shurely shome mishtake!?!

Definitely shome mishtake!!!

Good effort and a bowler tip to both for being sports.

No Pitt stop, as Andy chairs fleet money men

This from Cross London Trains...

Cross London Trains (“XLT”) the company established to finance and purchase Desiro City  trains from Siemens plc and to lease them to the Operator of the Thameslink rail franchise has made two senior appointments following the recent contract award for 1,140 new rail carriages.

Andy Pitt has joined XLT as Executive Chairman. Andy previously held a number of senior roles within the rail industry including Managing Director Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited and Rail Business Development Director for Stagecoach Group plc. He is a former member of the Association of Train Operating Companies Board and former Chairman of the Operations Council. Andy led a £1 billion private sector procurement for train supply and maintenance that delivered Siemens Desiro rolling stock for South West Trains.

Charles Doyle will join Cross London Trains as Managing Director from Transport for London where he has spent the last seven years in various financial positions, most recently as a Principal of Commercial Finance.  In his time at TfL Charles was involved in a number of rolling stock and infrastructure PFIs and procurement programmes. 

Ends

XLT’s shareholders are 3i Infrastructure plc, Innisfree PFI Secondary Fund 2 LP and Project Ventures Rail Investments I Limited, a Siemens Project Ventures group company.

Interesting.

Siemens out of Crossrail running

This from Siemens...

Crossrail rolling stock procurement
 
Siemens confirms that it will not be proceeding further in the Crossrail rolling stock procurement process.

This is a strategic decision that has been taken based on current business activity levels. Crossrail is a very large project and, since first undertaking our initial assessment of capacity and deliverability, Siemens has won multiple additional orders. To pursue another project of this scale could impact our ability to deliver our current customer commitments - something we believe would not be a responsible course of action.

Siemens has an excellent working relationship with the Crossrail bid team and believe that they have conducted a fair and diligent process.   We remain fully committed to ensuring the success of the Crossrail project through the continued delivery of the signalling and communications / control systems through Siemens rail automation business.

Wow! That is all.
 

Burns Lite: A week is a long time in politics

More wise words from Third Degree Burns.

This written answer given yesterday...

Chris Williamson (Derby North, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the reasons are for the time taken to agree the signing of the Thameslink contract; and if he will make a statement.

Simon Burns (Chelmsford, Conservative)
The Department intends to award the contract for Thameslink Rolling Stock shortly. Transactions of this size necessarily include a significant volume of both project and finance documentation. The Department is working with Siemens and Cross London Trains to finalise these arrangements.

Eye has temporarily lost the office copy of Dods Guide to Parliamentary Obfuscation, but from memory "shortly" is further away than "imminent" but perhaps not as close as "Later this month". 

Thameslink fleet - latest deadline passed

Good news for fans of Whitehall rolling stock procurement!

This from yesterday's Derby Telegraph...

In an interview with the Derby Telegraph in January, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said he expected the £1.4 billion deal to be signed off with winning bidder Siemens "by the end of March".

But moving into April, the deal for 1,200 carriages still remains unsigned.

Just fancy that!

Siemens buy Invensys

This from the Graun...

Engineering group Invensys shocked the City on Wednesday night when it sold its rail business to German rival Siemens for £1.74bn, in the latest foreign takeover of a British technology firm.

If you can't beat them, buy them!

Siemens confirms further delay to Thameslink signing

This from Siemens...

THAMESLINK ROLLING STOCK PROJECT UPDATE

Steve Scrimshaw, Managing Director of Siemens Rail, today commented:

“The Thameslink negotiations are ongoing and although we are disappointed that they have taken longer than anticipated, we are making good progress and we remain confident that we will achieve closure of this important deal.”

“Our project team is in detailed negotiations with the Department for Transport and in daily contact with them and other key stakeholders.”

“Depending on progress over the next month or so, we hope to achieve commercial close by Christmas with financial closure in the new year".

"We have been forging ahead with the manufacturing planning of our Desiro City train for Thameslink, the second generation commuter train based on the very successful Desiro UK train. We are already well advanced with our plans for the start of vehicle testing at our dedicated test track later this year.”

"Having already invested well over 50 million Euros – at our own risk - in its development, I look forward to the Desiro City train taking pride of place on the UK rail network."

ENDS 

And in more good news for the beleaguered DfT, additional delays in ordering the Thameslink fleet will mean newly electrified routes in the North will have to be served by diesel trains.

Derbygate - the chickens come home to roost!

This from a Mr Saltaire...

I wonder if Eye readers have spotted this gem from Cruella given in the House on the 17th May?

Maria Eagle (Garston and Halewood, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the reasons are for the time taken to finalise the Thameslink rolling stock contract; and when she expects the contract to be finalised.

Theresa Villiers (Minister of State (Rail and Aviation), Transport; Chipping Barnet, Conservative)
The Department expects to conclude the core project agreements with Siemens and Cross London Trains shortly, following which Cross London Trains and their lending banks then need to conclude the financing documentation required to secure the necessary equity and debt funding for the project.

So, let me get this straight.

There are now two processes taking place:

The projct agreement, which will be agreed 'shortly' (whatever that may equate to in Daftime) and the project funding, which apparently is not even in place yet!

How, therefore, could the DfT have accepted Cross London Train's offer, given that a prerequisite of the project was that it be fully financed?

More importantly how does the Government know whether the Order of Magnitude financing costs assumed at the time of the bid, still stand today, tomorrow or in six months time when the Euro may well have disappeared from the commercial landscape?

If I were Wabtec, Bombardier or Railcare, I’d be getting my tendering pencils warmed up for a Class 319 refurb offer! 

And if I were ATOC, and had just delivered a Rolling Stock Strategy, then I’d be thinking about going back to the drawing board, as far as EMU cascades are concerned.

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

And if I were in Marsham Street I would be stuffing a telephone directory down my trousers in advance of a spanking from the National Audit Office!

Siemens fights back on Thameslink

This from the Independent...

Juergen Maier, head of Siemens' UK arm, told The Independent that media coverage had been "biased", that 2,000 British jobs would be created, and that rival Bombardier should accept that this is "a competitive world".

Ah!

The old '2,000 British jobs' ploy.

Would it be churlish to point out that these 2,000 maintenance and depot jobs would have been created by whomsoever had won the Thameslink contract?

Meanwhile, only Bombardier offered to manufacture the new trains in Britain, whilst Siemens plan to build the Thameslink fleet in Germany.

Perhaps Herr Maier can tell us precisely how many British jobs that will create?

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic, who raises a quizzical eyebrow....

2000 maintenance and depot jobs? for 1200 vehicles?

Perhaps 200?

Tories destined to repeat mistakes of the past?

Telegrammed by Mons Star
As Captain Deltic's counter of days, since the placing of the last new train order, ticks ominously away the question on everyone's lips is 'will it be over by Christmas?'.

Three current deals could, in theory, stop the clock before it reaches 1,000 days on the 28th December.

The London Midland/TPE order for Siemens' Desiros is still being haggled over by DafT. LM's press release announcing preferred status for the only credible bidder already hinted that commercial close might slip into the new year...

Meanwhile the southern thrust of Siemens' drive, Thameslink, is in big financial trouble, with a respected finance journal reporting that the current liquidity situation has funders calling for higher returns. To add to the woe there are also reports that the money men have finally woken up to the risk involved in total train service provision PFI deals. The darkening shadows of London Underground's PPP draw ever nearer...

Finally , the IEP is reported to be neck and neck with Thameslink. Make of that what you will, but East Coast and Great Western are already devoting time and effort to looking at 'credible' alternatives. Could there be a link between Rail Barbie's departure and her insistence that the 'something must be done' with the lacklustre IC225 fleet?

So, all over by Christmas? More likely DfT is planning its usual costly and misguided war of attrition.

If so, 1st March will be a dark day - marking the second occasion when a Tory Transport Secretary has presided over a 1064 day hiatus in ordering new trains.

So where is Philip Hammond today?

So where is the Secretary of State today?

Eye finds it a little surprising that Petrol-head should be missing on the day when his department announced that a £1.5bn order for new trains is to be awarded to a German manufacturing plant.

An announcement that will result in many thousands of British voters losing their jobs.

A decision that will result in the death of train manufacturing in Derby after 160 years.

An order paid for by the taxpayer that has little to offer either British business or UK PLC.

A contract award that might have been explained to the whole rail industry at Railtex, but was instead disclosed by a junior minister in a written answer and in calls to selected hacks.

Eye is sure that the decision was made for sound reasons, but is surprised that the Secretary of State didn't see fit to make it himself?

UPDATE: This from Flat Cap and Whippet...

Buried in a Whitehall website, under business rates at ports and waste, you would have surely noticed that Hammond was having a jolly in a landlocked European country.

Who cares about thousands of British jobs, when one has a comprehensive air transport agreement to start negotiating with Moldova.

Thameslink fleet announced

BBC reporting that Siemens has won the contract for the Thameslink fleet.

More to follow...

If true, brave of cowardly-custard Petrol-head to make the announcement the day after he visited Railtex...

UPDATE: And here the DfT press release...

RAIL PASSENGERS TO BENEFIT FROM 1,200 NEW CARRIAGES

Rail passengers are set to benefit from less crowded and more frequent trains after Rail Minister Theresa Villiers today announced the next stage in a plan to build around 1,200 new rail carriages. The carriages will be used on the busy Thameslink route, allowing existing Thameslink carriages to be redeployed to relieve over-crowded rail routes across the country.

The £6bn Thameslink upgrade - of which the new carriages are a crucial part - will almost double the peak-time capacity on Thameslink's core central London section, allow longer trains to run and provide new fast and frequent London connections to towns and cities both north and south of the capital. The trains will also be lighter, more reliable and more energy efficient. The first new carriages will arrive in 2015.

Siemens Plc and XL Trains – a consortium comprising of Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, Innisfree Ltd and 3i Infrastructure Plc - have been appointed preferred bidder to build, own, finance and maintain the new trains. Siemens is already one of the leading suppliers of trains on British railways and employs around 16,000 people in the UK. The contract will create up to 2,000 new UK jobs. This includes work being created at Siemens' factory in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear, as well as in the rail industry supply chain. It also includes jobs at two maintenance depots for the new trains which, subject to planning permission, will be built at Three Bridges near Crawley and at Hornsey in the London Borough of Haringey. The Thameslink infrastructure works will employ an additional 3,000 people at the height of construction.

Theresa Villiers said:

“This is a major step forward for the long-awaited Thameslink Programme which will make life better for thousands of commuters. Today’s announcement is further proof of the Government’s commitment to investing in Britain’s future. Despite the pressure on budgets resulting from the need to tackle the deficit, we remain fully committed to the Thameslink upgrade which will dramatically improve journeys for commuters and boost the economy.

“The announcement of Siemens Plc and XL Trains as preferred bidder for this contract represents the best value for money for taxpayers. It will create around 2,000 new jobs and will provide Thameslink passengers with modern, greener and more reliable trains.

"The new trains are a major part of the Government’s commitment to introduce an additional 2,100 carriages on to the rail network by 2019. Once the new trains are delivered, current Thameslink rolling stock becomes available to improve rail services in the North West of England, the Thames Valley and other areas yet to be confirmed.

"The Thameslink Programme includes major improvements to central London stations such as Blackfriars, Farringdon and London Bridge. It will reduce crowding by almost doubling capacity on the central section of one Britain's busiest railways. Passengers will also get the benefit of a new generation of electric commuter trains operating at metro-style frequency levels during the morning and evening peaks through the central section."

- ENDS -

Frenchies throw toys out of pram!

This from Yahoo.co.uk...

France has stepped up its opposition to Eurostar's decision to buy trains from Germany's Siemens AG instead of French supplier Alstom by taking the case to the European Commission, a German newspaper reported on Friday

This is going to get very interesting.

Or not.

Eye says Clifton for Rail Regulator!

It's been a long time since a senior industry figure has publicly said that the 'Emperor has no clothes'.

So when one does it twice within the space of a month it is worthy of special mention.

Regular Eye readers may recollect that on the 23rd September a certain Mr Richard Clifton, of the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority, poured scorn on DB's claims that 'safety bureaucracy' would prevent ICE3s running through the tunnel.

Just three weeks later our brave fighter-for-truth is at it again!

This time exposing high level nonsense from the Frenchies, claiming Chunnel safety concerns, after Eurostar threatened to buy German trains.

According to the Pink 'Un:

Richard Clifton, head of the UK delegation to the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority, said no party had raised serious concerns during a consultation launched in July last year about allowing trains with distributed power – motors distributed throughout the train – use the tunnel.

Richard Clifton - good effort.

An apology to our German readers

The Fact Compiler has been taken to task for stereotyping our Teutonic friends in the previous post.

Clearly in the new Europe this can not be tolerated.

To make amends Eye is happy to run this picture of the launch of ScotRail's new Class 380 EMU at Siemens, Wildenrath, yesterday.


No stereotypes there then.