Passenger Rail, Rail Supply, Rolling stock & Rail Vehicle Design

Three shortlisted for Melbourne high capacity contract

Rail worker manufacturing. Photo: RailGallery.com.au / Courtesy of Bombardier

Victorian transport minister Jacinta Allan has named three consortia to the shortlist to deliver 37 new high capacity metro trains.

Allan, who is also the state minister for employment, named the following shortlisted parties for the High Capacity Metro Trains (HCMT) Project this week:

  • Bombardier – comprising Bombardier Transportation Australia, Macquarie Bank, ITOCHU and Infrared Capital Partners
  • Eureka Rail – comprising Alstom, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and John Laing
  • Evolution Rail – comprising Downer EDI, Changchun Railway Vehicles and Plenary

Allan noted each of the three shortlisted bidders includes a Victorian manufacturer. This reflects the Andrews Government’s “strict local content requirements,” she pointed out, with at least 50% of the HCMT Project work to take place in Victoria.

Bombardier has a manufacturing site in Dandenong, in south-east Melbourne. Alstom has a regional centre workshop for rollingstock in Ballarat, roughly 100km west of Melbourne. Downer has a rail workshop in Newport, just east of the Melbourne CBD.

“The shortlisted bidders will build the best trains for Victoria and our strong local content requirements mean they will create local jobs and boost the Victorian economy,” Allan said.

“Melbourne is growing and more people are choosing to catch the trains – that’s why these new bigger, better trains are critical.”

The contract for the $1.3 billion HCMT Project was released to market in June. The trains will run on the Cranbourne-Pakenham line, Melbourne’s busiest.

The 37-train contract is part of the Victorian Government’s Trains, Trams, Jobs 2015-2025 plan, which outlines a ten-year plan for the procurement of 100 new trains, 100 new trams, and also sets out to boost the regional fleet.

The HCMT Project is being procured as a public private partnership, and also includes the construction of a new train maintenance depot in Pakenham.

Allan says the project will create as many as 800 jobs during the manufacturing stage, and 200 ongoing jobs in train maintenance.

The shortlisted trio will be requested to submit a formal proposal in the second quarter of 2016, the government explained. The tender process is expected to be completed before the end of 2016.

The government wants the first train delivered under the contract by late 2018.


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