Turnkey contract goes to Ansaldo - Birmingham, England gives $385 million light rail contract to Ansaldo Trasporti - Brief Article

Railway Age, June, 1993

In intensive international competition, a consortium headed by Ansaldo Trasporti has won a S385 million contract to supply a 20-km light rail line 10 Birmingham, England, on a turnkey basis. The contract includes a 20-year operating concession, Ansaldo entered its bid in consortium with British-based Taylor Woodrow (Centram). Competitive bids came from groups headed by Siemens. ABB Transportation, AEG Westinghouse, and !Hawker Siddeley Rail Projects.

The contract is for construction of Line 1 of a planned 80-km system, Due for completion in April 1997, the initial line will run at grade from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton. It will include 23 stations and is designed to carry 8,000 passengers per hour in each direction.

The Ansaldo Trasporti/Taylor Woodrow consortium bid on a build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis.

Ansaldo noted that there are two main aspects to this kind of contract: "First, the suppliers will have to receive a large part of their returns from the operating margin of the system. This is highly dependent in their ability to manage the operation efficiently, maintain the dependability of the system's infrastructure and rolling stock, and provide quality service. By uniting the role of constructor and operations manager, stricter demands are placed on the supplier to optimize all facets of the system. Second, the completed system will have to compete fiercely, not as a monopolistic, subsidized transportation mode, but in an open market environment where it must win over Birmingham's present-day bus and private automobile users."

Naples-based Ansaldo Trasporti is part of the Ansaldo Groupo of Genoa. which employs 210,000 people worldwide in the production of transportation, energy, and industrial systems.

The nucleus of Ansaldo Trasporti's North American operations is Union Switch & Signal, with headquarters in Columbia, S.C., systems and research operations in Pittsburgh, Pa. US&S also has components and service, training, and distribution operations in Batesburg, S.C.