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National Express signs €1.6 billion deal to run regional trains in Germany

  • 26-09-2013 9:35pm
    #1
    MGWR
    Closed Accounts Posts: 611 ✭✭✭


    That's quite the liberalisation deal. Would Ireland be receptive to British firms running its trains again, though?

    The Local
    British transport company National Express will sign a contract on Wednesday to run two regional rail services in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, in a deal worth €1.6 billion.

    The new services between Krefeld, Cologne, Bonn, Wuppertal and Münster will start in December 2015 and run for 15 years.

    The contract represents part of a larger programme of liberalising the EU's rail and transport networks. It is expected that around 35 contracts of a similar volume are likely to follow in the next five years. ...


Comments

  • #2
    GBOA
    Closed Accounts Posts: 131 ✭✭GBOA


    If that happened here, there's nothing to indicate the firms would be British, given that 2/3 of the UK TOCs are foreign owned. Just in case though...


  • #3
    dowlingm
    Registered Users Posts: 5,309 ✭✭✭dowlingm


    The Germans have the money to pay the private operators what they will bill. If Virgin etc. turned up in Ireland you'd expect them to demand a similar regime to the toll operators to ensure their risk was minimised.


  • #4
    murphaph
    Registered Users Posts: 19,018 ✭✭✭✭murphaph


    To be honest until the network is managed competently I wouldn't expect any private operators to be interested in running stock on it. Bridge collapses etc are not really what these companies want.


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