Some have begun to suggest that the standard narrative building up around the Thameslink contract – that Britain should become more like other European countries who do more to get round pesky competition laws to award contracts to their own ‘national champions’ – may be flawed.
The Financial Times, for instance, suggests that other EU countries are becoming more like Britain – pointing to Eurostar’s decision to go with Siemens, SNCF’s choice of Siemens for freight locomotives recently, and Spain’s Renfe also going with Siemens-built high-speed trains.
Michael Clausecker, secretary-general of Unife, said: “We observe a gradual opening of the market.”
But to the outside observer, the examples quoted hardly show the opening up of the market: instead, they suggest an increasing dominance of German manufacturing, and Siemens in particular, over the British and French.
If Siemens’s Thameslink experience gives it a better shot at the HS2 and Crossrail rolling stock orders, and Bombardier is much less able to compete, as many predict, the scales will only become ever more unbalanced.
