THE DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT is facing a new challenge over its controversial decision to award the £1.4 billion Thameslink rolling stock order to Siemens rather than Bombardier.
Tha Canadian company would have built the fleet of 300 trains in Derby, and now the union UNITE has won the backing of Derby City Council in its bid to gain a judicial review.
The transport secretary Philip Hammond told the House of Commons transport select committee as recently as last week that the decision to name Siemens as preferred bidder was irrevocable, but the DfT's calculations are already under scrutiny by the National Audit Office (NAO), which is expected to publish a preliminary report into the Thameslink procurement process next month.
Although the contract with Siemens is due to be confirmed in November, this timetable could be thrown into disarray if a judicial review does go ahead.
The NAO, too, could affect the progress of the contract if its preliminary report finds flaws in the DfT's procedures. It would then mount a full inquiry into the bids and how they were evaluated, with the results due to be published early in 2012.
The DfT does have the option of abandoning the present procurement and starting again, but the transport secretary has maintained that this would delay the arrival of new trains by several years. Such a delay would have knock-on effects as well, because the present fleet of Thameslink Class 319 units is destined to be modernised and then cascaded to newly electrified lines in the north west and west of England.
Work has already started on these lines, and a serious delay in the Thameslink process could mean that no electric trains were available for them, even after the upgrades had been completed.