Spanish locomotive manufacturer Talgo has won a €225 million electric train contract from Latvia’s state-run railway company Pasažieru Vilciens (PV). The scope of the deal includes delivery of the trains and equipment necessary for their maintenance, spare parts for the first five years and training of the personnel.
PV will be purchasing 32 new electric trains with a capacity of 450 passengers on each train. The new trains are set to be delivered between 2020-2023.
“Bids submitted by potential train suppliers were assessed by their projected operational costs over the 35 years the trains will be in service,” said Rodžers Jānis Grigulis, PV’s CEO. “We also took into consideration the schedule for delivery, as well as the costs of daily maintenance, repairs, spare parts, energy consumption and other expenses per passenger seat.”
But the new deal may face a legal challenge, as Škoda Vagonka, a Czech company which also bid for the tender, has said that it is likely to contest the procurement contract, stating that its initial offer had beaten its closest competition by 10 million euros but was “consciously made more expensive” with subsequent revisions by the Latvian rail company.