It is understood that five of the six consortia that applied will now be asked to submit a full bid. A consortium of Bank of Tokyo, Hitachi and Mitsubishi is understood to have been rejected.
Three of the five will be allowed to bid for both infrastructure companies, or infracos, responsible for the two sets of deep Tube lines. One infraco, called the BCV, will run the Bakerloo, Central, Waterloo & City and Victoria Lines, and the other, the JNP infraco, will run the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines.
The remaining two consortia will bid for one infraco each. This means there will be four bidders for each infraco.
The consortia that have prequalified are:
- New Metro Group (Taylor Woodrow, Siemens, Gibb, Mott MacDonald, Innisfree)
- Aon (Amey, Jarvis, Bechtel, Hyder, Halcrow)
- Tuberail (Brown & Root, Alstom, Amec, Carillion)
- Metronet (WS Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Adtranz, Seeboard, Thames Water)
- LINC (Mowlem, Fluor Daniel, Alcatel, Bombardier).
An LU spokesperson said no time limit would be put on full bidding once the invitation to tender had been made, as the government wanted to ensure that it got best value for money. “However, if it dragged on and on we might have to give it a deadline,” he added.
