EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Latvia, Railways

The value of the train supply contract is EUR 225.303 mln.

Grigulis said that the bid submitted by the Spanish company was economically the most feasible for the train’s projected service life of 35 years. Asked about the prices offered by other bidders, Grigulis said that the next best offer had been EUR 20 mln costlier.

The contract price includes delivery of the trains and the equipment necessary for their maintenance, spare parts for the first five years and training of the personnel.

Grigulis said that the bids submitted by the potential train suppliers were assessed by the projected operation costs planned for the 35 years of the trains’ service life. To select the best offer, the Latvian side took into consideration not only the schedule for the train’s manufacture and delivery but also the costs of daily maintenance, repairs, spare parts, energy consumption and other expenses per passenger seat.

Grigulis pointed out that Pasazieru Vilciens will be paying 22 less for a passenger seat than Estonia which purchased passenger trains from Stadler.

Grigulis said that the result of the passenger train tender was announced to the potential suppliers today at 11 a.m. and that they now have 10 weekdays to appeal the result. Considering the possibility of appeals, Grigulis was unable to tell when the contract might be signed.

After concluding the train purchase, Pasazieru Vilciens will be able to introduce regular-interval timetables on all routes, which means that during morning and evening rush hours departures will be scheduled for every 15 to 20 minutes. The new trains will be running on the Aizkraukle, Tukums, Skulte and Jelgava lines.

The new passenger trains will be delivered to Pasazieru Vilciens gradually, from 2020 to 2023.

Pasazieru Vilciens will purchase 32 electric trains with places for 450 passengers in each train.

As reported, the Latvian government decided on November 5 that Pasazieru Vilciens will be able to spend up EUR 259 mln worth of budget money on the purchase and maintenance of new electric trains, their parts and equipment, as well as construction of railway depots.

According to the decision taken by Latvia’s outgoing Cabinet of Ministers, Pasazieru Vilciens will be able to invest EUR 259 mln in the purchase and maintenance of new passenger trains and equipment and construction of new railway depots from 2019 to 2024.

Pasazieru Vilciens in September 2015 started a new tender to purchase electric trains, and four bidders had advanced to the second stage of the tender – Spanish company Talgo, Polish subsidiary of Swiss company Stadler, Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A. (CAF), and Czech company Skoda Vagonka.

Pasazieru Vilciens was established in 2001 to separate domestic passenger services from other functions performed by the state-owned Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railway). Although initially Pasazieru Vilciens was a 100% owned subsidiary of the Latvian Railway, in October 2008 it was transformed into an independent state-owned company.