Portugal: Accusations leveled by Stadler and CAF could lead to a delay in the announcement of the winner of the biggest tender in the country in recent years, writes the Publico newspaper. The winning company will deliver 117 electric trains for the CP national railway operator and localize production in the country. In total, 6 global players applied for the competition – CRRC, Alstom, Siemens, Hitachi, Stadler and CAF.
As the newspaper states, all the proposals of the tender participants, except for Stadler, were submitted with violations, however, none of the applications was excluded and the companies were given time to correct the errors. However, Stadler disagreed with that, stating the need to reject offers from other companies due to violations.
Also, Stadler, together with CAF, asked to exclude CRRC from the participation in tender, since the Chinese manufacturer did not provide documents confirming the experience in supplying trains that meet European TSI requirements. However, as part of a tender worth €270 mln for the supply of 20 six-car EMUs for several Romanian operators, the Chinese manufacturer passed the procedure for meeting European TSI requirements and received an intermediate ISV certificate in May last year.
Additionally, CAF is contesting Hitachi Rail taking part in the competition because, according to Publico, the documents provided by the manufacturer did not have electronic signatures and were not fully translated. CAF makes the same demands against Stadler itself, arguing this with one untranslated page in the application of the Swiss manufacturer.
It is worth noting that Stadler has previously encountered problems when signing tender documents. Last September, a court annulled a manufacturer’s contract for the supply of up to 186 KISS double-deck electric trains to Austrian operator OBB due to the signing of the agreement with a Swiss version of the digital signature, invalid outside the country. After appealing the decision in February, OBB awarded Stadler a contract again.
