*More details have emerged about Bombardier‘s coup in landing the GBP 1 bn contract for 65 Crossrail trains for London’s future link between Heathrow and Canary Wharf. The system will run “Aventura†trains developed by BDRAF for GBP 20 mn. They will have air-conditioning, a first for a London rail system (symptom of global warming)?
Despite my worries that a messed-up canceled London Transport contract for signaling systems would derail the deal, BDRAF beat out Hitachi and CAF of Spain. While it is HQ’d in French-speaking Quebec (Canada), Bombardier counts as British because it has a Derbyshire plant making railroad carriages for export as well as Britain employing 3,300 workers. It will add to this a depot at Watford in a London development area. This is terrific for the Bombardier! It earlier was outraced in 2011 by Siemens for another London infrastructure project, Thameslink.
Crossrail is boring ever eastward and the first Bombardier trains will run in May 2017 from Shenfield north east of London to Liverpool St. By the end of 2019, the 90-mile system will cover all major London business districts from Maidenhead west of the airport to Shenfield, along with a spur to Canary Wharf (and near Mudchute Manor where I am now, currently 75 minutes from the airport.)
The total cost of the project is c GBP 15 bn and funding has been provided by, among others, a loan from the European Investment Bank
*Reckitt Benckiser is still in focus even though I haven’t dared exit the Dockland Light Railway for the sardine-like and snail-like underground until today, and so have missed seeing the stock price roll around the Reuters building at Canary Wharf. The share is up because RBGLY is expected to bid for Merck‘s consumer health lines. This normally would hurt a stock price, but Reckitt is expected to peddle off its own pharma business (focused on methadone in safe packaging for heroin addicts) to buy the maker of Coppertone and OTC drugs. The theory seems to be that RBGLY will need $10 bn to buy the Merck lines and will get as much as GBP 4 bn ($6.4 bn) for what it will sell. RBGLY reports Feb. 12. HQ’d in Slough, RBGLY will gain from the new train line.
