Paul Scott wrote:
The usual suspects, Alstom, Bombardier, Siemens; plus Hitachi, have applied
to build the Thameslink EMUs.

This phase of the procurement process seems fairly predictable, would the
DfT not save time and money by prequalifying the first three for any future
UK rolling stock builds, or would that be against the rules, in case there
are other train builders around who might be interested?

Alstom decided not to bid for IEP, so it's probably good that they
weren't automatically pre-qualified!

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK