Stadler Launches Appeal Against SBB Double-Decker Decision

Stadler has lodged an official appeal against the SBB’s recent award of a contract for 116 double-decker trains to Siemens Mobility.

The company has launched an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court (FAC) in effort to, according to Stadler, ensure full transparency as an independent authority.

Stadler’s offer for the contract consisted of the supply of 116 of its existing double-decker units, 153 of which have been operating on SBB’s network since 2012, with 700 having been sold across a total of 14 countries.

Following its own analysis; Stadler decided to launch the appeal after discovering that the price difference between both its own bid and the winning effort is 0.6%.

The company has stated that it ‘cannot understand the points of the evaluation and the resulting award decision’; and that its own bid was ‘undervalued compared to a train that only exists on paper’. Stadler also claimed that it could not understand why the winning bid stood out in terms of evaluated criteria including cost, quality, maintenance, sustainability or service contracts.

Peter Spuhler, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stadler, said:

After thorough examination of the award decision, we still cannot understand the evaluation. For this reason, we have decided to lodge an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court, as provided for in the award procedure.

The Federal Administrative Court, as an independent judicial authority, should review the award decision for its correctness.

Stadler has claimed that documents it has been provided thus far do not offer any clarification on a number of questions within the evaluation, including its award of ‘only half as many points’ as the winning bidder within the sustainability category despite it being the only bidder capable of producing the trains entirely within Switzerland, as well as the plausibility of the winning train itself that ‘only exists on paper’ receiving higher scores than its own ‘proven’ units.

Despite the appeal; the company has strongly stated that it ‘does not want protectionism and has never demanded it’, with the resorting to legal remedies only applying in ‘exceptional cases’.

Stadler will not be making any further statements whilst proceedings are ongoing.