Three potential bidders have made the Greater Wellington regional council short list bid to operate, and maintain its metropolitan rail service which is currently provided by KiwiRail.
The contract could span up to 15 years and potentially be worth hundreds of millions of dollars according to BusinessDesk.
The short-list includes a joint venture between the local unit of Paris-based Transdev and South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem, UK-based Serco, and a venture between incumbent operator KiwiRail and Keolis Downer, the partnership between Paris-based Keolis and ASX-listed Downer.
KiwiRail has held the contract since 2006 and the Wellington regional council is testing the market for the services for the first time since taking ownership and control of the rolling stock and most of the stations over the past eight years.
The new contract will have a greater emphasis on performance-based partnering, after the government last year introduced a new public transport operating model, known as PTOM, for bus, ferry and rail, in an attempt to get better value for money by linking payments to growth in patronage and reducing reliance on subsidies.
“The new contracts will have a much greater emphasis on providing affordable services that encourage more people to take the train, bus or harbour ferry,” says regional council chief executive Greg Campbell.
The council will issue tender documents to the short-listed companies soon. It expects to select a preferred tenderer mid-year and sign a contract by the end of 2015. The new rail contract will take effect from July 1, 2016.
Wellington rail is undergoing a transition to electrification and is expected to complete its transition to Hyundai Rotem’s Matangi electric trains by late 2016.
