BBD.B Derby Petition
A DERBY MP has tabled an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to award the £1 billion Crossrail rolling stock contract to city train-maker Bombardier.
Derby North MP Chris Williamson has started the parliamentary petition, which can be signed by other MPs.
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Bombardier's Litchurch Lane factory
It has already received the backing of Derby South MP Margaret Beckett, who has sponsored the motion.
It calls on MPs to back a campaign for the Crossrail contract to be awarded to the Litchurch Lane firm.
In particular, it calls on Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who is chairman of Transport for London, which will receive the Crossrail trains, to publicly support the campaign.
Bombardier is one of four bidders hoping to land the work to build 600 carriages.
If it wins the work, the contract could secure the long term future of its Derby factory.
The Department for Transport said that the winning bidder will be announced early next year.
Earlier this month(march), the Government announced that the trains would be 100% funded with public money, in order to guarantee they are delivered on time.
This means the bidders will not be judged on their ability to raise private finance to pay for the trains.
Bombardier supporters believe that the reason Bombardier lost out on another large government contract, the £1.4 billion Thameslink deal, was because the winning bidder, German manufacturer Siemens, had a superior credit rating and would be able to raise cash more easily to pay for the 1,200 carriages.
Mr Williamson’s motion welcomes the fact that the Crossrail trains will be publicly-financed.
It states that awarding Crossrail to Bombardier would “would guarantee 10,000 jobs in the East Midlands and in the national supply chain, as well as safeguarding the future of train building in the nation that gave railways to the world”.
But it also raises concerns if Bombardier does not win the work, warning that “the plant will close meaning the end of British train manufacturing”.
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