HS2 and Talgo settle procurement dispute on eve of court hearing
HS2 and the Spanish train manufacturer, Talgo, have reached an out of court settlement on the eve of a High Court hearing in relation to HS2’s conduct of its rolling stock train procurement process.
Last month the court case was brought forward to July to avoid “a severe knock on impact to the wider HS2 delivery programme”, with a pre-trial review scheduled to take place on 5 July..
However, the New Civil Engineer reports, HS2 Ltd has now confirmed that the proceedings have been settled ahead of the hearing.
Talgo launched its legal challenge after HS2 Ltd informed it that it would not proceed to stage five of the procurement process in January 2021. Following this, in March and April 2021, Talgo issued proceedings against HS2 Ltd in the Technology and Construction Court of the High Court in London on three issues:.
That HS2 Ltd unlawfully permitted some tenders to proceed with changes having been made to the tenders and/or qualifications made to the bids;
Secondly, that HS2 Ltd acted in breach of its obligations in relation to the acquisition by Alstom of Bombardier during the procurement process (both were tenderers); and,
Finally, Talgo claimed the procurement has been impaired by apparent bias on the part of HS2 Ltd’s tender evaluators.
These claims were all firmly disputed by HS2 Ltd.
An HS2 spokesperson said:
“Following the mutual resolution of proceedings between HS2 and Talgo, HS2 is grateful for Talgo's participation in the rolling stock procurement and wishes Talgo all the best with its future endeavours, both in the UK and internationally.
Talgo managing director Jon Veitch added:
"After proceedings were commenced in March 2021 by Talgo against HS2 concerning the rolling stock manufacture and maintenance procurement for HS2, the parties have agreed to a mutually acceptable resolution of these claims.
As the case was settled out-of-court on a commercially confidential basis, the veracity of Talgo’s claims about the HS2’s conduct of its rolling stock procurement process will never be impartially judged.
