Major rail contract a possibility
A UNION has called on Mayor of London Boris Johnson to publicly support a campaign for a major rail contract to be awarded to Derby’s Bombardier.
The RMT is calling on him to back the push for the £1 billion Crossrail contract to be handed to the Litchurch Lane train-maker.
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson has been urged to back Bombardier
It follows a decision by the Government to follow a suggestion by Mr Johnson, who is chairman of Transport for London, to wholly finance the build with public money in order to guarantee the trains are delivered on time.
The RMT believes that in order to avoid a repeat of the delays experienced with another contract, the £1.4 billion Thameslink deal, which was awarded to German firm Siemens, the Crossrail trains should be built by Bombardier.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “Although we welcome the belated recognition of the two-year disaster on the Thamelsink/Siemens fleet deal, and the recognition that private/public partnerships are an expensive gamble doomed to failure, there now needs to be top-level pressure to ensure that the Crossrail fleet, publicly funded, is built here in Britain.
“The public would be disgusted to find that their money is being used to underpin a German corporate giant like Siemens while 10,000 skilled manufacturing jobs in the East Midlands and beyond are on the block.
“As chairman of TFL, Boris Johnson should come out clearly now and say publicly that he is backing the campaign for the Crossrail fleet to be built in Britain and that means at the plant in Derby.”
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