Not how PKP envisioned PKP Intercity to tender for 38 double-deck, two-stroke cars and 45 multi-system locomotives. There was no flow of proposals, and what appeared is financially difficult to accept.
PKP has been in the news lately due to the increase in ticket prices, meanwhile, according to Rzeczpospolita, the railway “tender of the century” is falling apart. launched in 2021, brought an unexpected result - instead of a stream of proposals from the largest European manufacturers (there were seven applicants at the first stage), as a result, one was submitted, which is not easy to accept financially.
Exorbitant price for PKP
The consortium of Pesa from Bydgoszcz and Newag from Nowy Sącz, which had been competing with each other until now, offered to execute the contract for PLN 7.82 billion. Meanwhile, the carrier planned to allocate 5.4 billion zł for these purposes. According to the newspaper, at this price, two-stroke Intercity buses carrying 650 passengers and moving at a speed of 200 km/h would cost about PLN 206 million per unit.
Experts cited by Rzeczpospolita emphasize that such a high price is due to the risk of the contract. - Taking into account the conditions of the order, introduced by Intercity, given the tight deadlines for the preparation of the rolling stock, which was not previously built in Poland, with all the approvals received, its implementation is unlikely. Therefore, bidders include the cost of any penalties in the price because the risk is high - comments Piotr Rachwalski, public transport expert, president of the Metropolitan Transport Company in the province of Silesia.
In addition, according to the newspaper, the project will be co-financed by funds from the National Reconstruction Plan, which are still not available, and it is not known whether they will be available at all. As a result, none of the major manufacturers with experience in building such trains as Alstom or Skoda dared to fight for the contract.
What will the government do?
Ultimately, the government is faced with a decision - to add the missing almost 2.5 billion zlotys, either to repeat the tender, which will mean a further increase in costs due to inflation, or to transfer this money to local governments, which could organize an inter-voivodeship. connections on your own. The solution may also be to negotiate with manufacturers to find a ready-made design and possibly adapt it to the needs. This is what Swiss railways do when they choose already in operation and proven rolling stock through tenders.
Source: Wprost
I am George Brown, author at Daily News Hack. I mostly cover economy news and I have been doing this for quite some time now. I have a lot of experience in this field and I’m always looking for new opportunities to learn more.
