Four bid to supply 10 new locomotives to Bulgarian state railways
There have been four bidders to supply 10 newly-built locomotives to Bulgarian state railways BDZ for use on passenger trains, it said in a statement on December 19.
The four bidders are Bombardier Transportation GmbH, Siemens Tron Consortium, Excelor-EL Consortium and Stadler Rail Valencia SAU, BDZ said.
“The interest shown by leading companies in the production of rolling stock is a good sign regarding the efforts to improve the sustainability and quality of the service offered by BDZ Passenger Transport,” the statement said.
The estimated value of the contract is more than 57.5 million leva (about 29.4 million euro) excluding VAT, and after consideration of the documentation of the submitted bidders, the procedure will continue at the stage of submission of technical and price bids.
The planned completion of the contract is by the end of March 2020, and the estimated delivery of the first new locomotives is within 18 months after the signing of the contract, BDZ said.
Bulgarian state railways has been negatively affected by a shortage of serviceable locomotives. For some weeks in September and October 2019, BDZ suspended 14 passenger services to free up sufficient resources to serve fast trains on long-distance routes between major destinations in Bulgaria.
BDZ announced on December 17 that BDZ Passenger Transport Ltd had signed a contract valued at 137 million leva (about 70 million euro) with Alstom Transport SA for repairs and maintenance of 46 Siemens electric and diesel locomotives.
(Photos: © Bombardier, Siemens and Stadler Rail)
