The Railway Reform Authority (ARF) is awaiting the Court of Appeal’s explanations regarding the admission of the appeal filed by Alstom Transport against the contract signed with the Polish manufacturer PESA for 62 new short-distance trains.
New trains in Romania. When would they be delivered?
Until these explanations are received, according to the legislation, the service contract remains in force, according to the declarations of the president of the authority, Ştefan Roşeanu, for Agerpres.
“In the case of the 62 trains, we are still waiting for the Court’s motivation to see what are the points to be reevaluated in the offer made by PESA, at least that is what follows from the brief motivation that is published on the justice portal, but exactly the points that will have to reanalyzed, we won’t know them until after the motivation comes. Until that moment, according to the legislation, the PESA service contract continues its life and, following the reevaluation, we will see what the next steps are. It is premature to speak about cancellations or non-cancellations, especially since at this moment, in this brief motivation, nothing is written about the cancellation of the contract. Contracts are annulled when the court expressly requests it”, said Roşeanu.
Also, the head of the ARF emphasized that in the court’s summary reasoning it is mentioned that it “admits in part” the appeal, so the aspects that were “retained” are not yet known.
“In the brief presentation, the court says that they partially retained (some aspects of the appeal – no), so we cannot even know what are the points they retained. On some things we can say that ARF was clearly right, once the points contested by Alstom were not retained, maybe on others Alstom was right, which is why we have to do the re-evaluation and see what the result of the re-evaluation is”, he explained .
Ștefan Roşeanu also mentioned the fact that the legislation on public procurement provides for the granting of compensation to the party that submitted the appeal, “in case the results differ from the initial ones”.
Who submitted bids for the auction
Poland’s Pojazdy Szynowe Pesa Bydgoszcz Spolka Akcyjna (PESA) and France’s Alstom Transport are the two companies that submitted bids in the tender organized by ARF for the purchase of 62 electric short-haul (RE-R) frames.
At the end of October, ARF designated PESA as the winner of the tender for the purchase of 62 regional trains (RE-R), and in January 2024 the contract was signed. In parallel, Alstom Transport filed appeals. After the rejection of the appeal by the CNSC, Alstom Transport appealed the decision to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, and the court “partially admits the complaint of Alstom Transport SA”, according to the summary solution.
The total value of the project is 3.23 billion lei, without VAT, and is financed from the Transport Program (PT) 2021-2027, with co-financing from the state budget.
The contract is divided into three lots: Lot 1 – 20 RE-R regional electric frames, for the Bucharest North – Ploiești South – Adjud, Iași – Pașcani – Suceava, Bacău – Pașcani routes; Lot 2 – 23 RE-R regional electric frames, for the routes Brașov – Gheorgheni, Arad – Timișoara – Caransebeș, Huedin – Cluj – Bistrița; Lot 3 – 19 RE-R regional electric frames, for the routes Bucharest North – Ploiesti West – Brașov, Bucharest North – Roșiori, Bucharest North – Bucharest Obor/Fundulea.
The Polish frames can travel at a maximum speed of 160 km/h and can carry 453 passengers (224 seats and the rest standing). They are also equipped with 16 places for the transport of bicycles.
According to the contract, the trains are to be delivered starting in 2026, and by the end of 2026 and 2027 they must be fully delivered.
