£1bn train deal lost to Germans

COMMUTER trains costing £1bn are being built in Germany because UK manufacturers were unable to meet the delivery deadline or the price.

South West Trains, which runs on the busiest routes in the country into London's Waterloo station, will unveil the first of its high-specification Desiro trains at a test track at Wildenrath, near the town of Wegberg in north west Germany next week.

The decision to order from Siemens disappointed train manufacturers here who competed for the lucrative contract, Britain's biggest ever single order for rolling stock. Moving to Germany, however, illustrates the poor state of the UK train-building industry.

Train-maker Bombardier - Midlands-based but French-Canadian owned - which has taken over the former British Rail engineering works, said: 'We competed for the contract and when we failed it caused a lot of upset because it would have guaranteed jobs in this country.

'We always try to push the fact that we are a UK-based manufacturer, but it is cheaper elsewhere.'

A second company, Alstom, which has its UK headquarters in Birmingham, also failed.

Jane Lee, spokeswoman for Stagecoach-owned South West Trains, said: 'We invited British and European companies to tender in the way we are required to do. The winning bid was chosen on the basis of price, specification and the ability to meet the tight 2004 deadline.'

But an SWT source said: 'We went to Germany because of the unreliability of trains built in this country. We would have been happy to award the contract to someone here but, frankly, they were beaten on price and delivery. You only have to look at the situation at Connex to see what we mean.'

Siemens said: 'The reason why we won the contract and are able meet the tough deadline is because of our special test track. We know from experience that trains need to be proven before they are delivered. That is our trump card.'

There is no equal test track in the UK - instead trains, once they are delivered, have to be run for thousands of miles without passengers which all adds to the time taken before they go into service.

Siemens says that because its trains are fully tested under operating conditions they can very quickly go into passenger service.

Connex has ordered trains worth £180m from Bombardier but they are more than a year late coming into service because of faults with on-board computers, doors and coupling mechanisms. Another deadline to introduce 16 trains was missed on Monday.

SWT has already ordered 30 four-carriage trains from Alstom, which describes itself as a global company with headquarters in Paris, but not all of these are in service. There have been various problems including ride quality and faulty airconditioning.

The first of the Desiro stock is due to come into service at the end of this year and the remainder during 2003-2004, to meet government deadlines for the replacement of 40-year-old slam-door stock.

The Transport & General Workers Union said of the decision to go to Germany: 'It is disappointing when train operating companies don't use UK-based manufacturers, especially as we have the skills and ability to produce the goods.'

Meanwhile, SWT commuters have launched a campaign to prevent the Alstom-built stock being used during peak periods because, they say, they are so unreliable.

The April newsletter of the Alton Line Users Association said the trains have made the line 'the worst performer on the network'.

In Kent, Connex commuters have launched a fight to keep the 1960s slam-door stock rather than have them replaced with newer but 'unreliable' Networker trains.