Advising Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen GmbH on procurement of rail vehicles for use on the electric rail network of Central Saxony

A multi-office team of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek led by public procurement law experts Ulf Christiani, Partner, and Ulrike Siegert, Lawyer, both from the firm's Chemnitz office, advised Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the special purpose association Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen, as part of an innovative pool solution on the procurement of 29 rail vehicles worth EUR 144.6 million. By awarding production and maintenance services on the one side and the operation of the electric rail network of Central Saxony separately on the other side, it is an objective of the project "Vehicle pool electric rail network of Central Saxony" to create genuine competition between the participating enterprises and thus to realize savings potential.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek's tasks in the required contract award procedure for the vehicle pool included the drafting of the bid documents, holding the negotiations with the bidders and the bid evaluation and documentation.
Funding from the Free State of Saxony, own funds of the special purpose association Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen and a syndicated bank loan were used in order to finance the project "Vehicle pool electric rail network of Central Saxony." Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek also advised on this new type of credit financing solution for regional passenger rail transport authorities.

The most economical offer of the contract award procedure concluded now for production and maintenance of the vehicles to be put into operation starting from June 2016 was submitted by Alstom Transport GmbH, which was thus awarded the contract.

Responsible for the project:
Ulf Christiani (Lead),
Ulrike Siegert (both Public Procurement Law),
Tobias Leege (Financing), all Chemnitz;
Dr. Helge-Torsten Wöhlert (Financing), Munich;
Dr. Guido Hoffmann, LL.M. (Financing), Düsseldorf, Frankfurt;
Dr. Stefan Proske (Financing), Berlin.