New Brisbane EMU news

[bikkuri bahn]

Of possible interest to Westfalen and others:

 

AUSTRALIA: The Queensland state government has shortlisted two consortia for a PPP concession to supply a fleet of at least 75 six-car EMUs to operate Brisbane suburban services, Transport & Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson confirmed on March 5.

 

After evaluating the responses to a Request for Proposals issued in 2011, Emerson said the department was ‘currently in the final bidding phase with the two committed proponents’: Bombardier Transportation Australia and the AdvanceRail consortium of Mitsubishi and CAF. Emerson anticipated that the contract would be awarded later this year, with deliveries to start towards the end of 2015.

 

complete article:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/brisbane-emu-suppliers-shortlisted/archiv/2013/maerz.html

[westfalen]

My bet is the contract will go to Bombardier aka Walkers as has every one since 1979, no state government of either persuasion has wanted to risk losing votes in Maryborough. Interesting that they say "75 six-car EMUs", are they going to be fixed six car sets or do they really mean 150 three car sets? Also interesting is the revival of the proposed maintanence depot at Wulkuraka as the local residents out there have just recently been succesful in getting the ballast loading moved to the former coal loading loop at Box Flat.

[Davo Dentetsu]

Interesting news!  Bombardier will of course still be filling out orders for Brisbane and Perth for a while yet, so competition won't hurt for the foreseeable future.