Bombardier in line to win €2.3bn Cairo monorail contract
Canadian firm Bombardier has been named as the preferred bidder for a €2.3bn (£2bn) contract to build a monorail system in Egypt’s capital, and said it would make the trains in Britain.
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If successful, Bombardier’s transportation arm would bag a design and build contract worth €1.2bn alongside an agreement to help operate and maintain the monorail worth €1.1bn over 30 years.
The company’s Derby facility would manufacture the monorail cars, Bombardier said, potentially bringing many new jobs to the Midlands city.
Phil Hufton, UK president of Bombardier, said it was “excellent news for Bombardier and for our teams in the UK and in Egypt”.
“It shows that the British rail industry is world class and can compete and win in global markets,” he said.
International trade secretary Liam Fox said the decision showed “how UK manufacturing expertise is competing and winning in global markets against tough competition”.
Connecting East Cairo and the New Administrative City, the monorail will stretch to 54km. A second line will connect 6th of October City with Giza, the home of the famous pyramids, and be 42km long.
The new monorail would be completed in partnership with Egyptian companies Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors, Bombardier said.
The announcement marks the latest step in the Canadian company’s four-year talks with the Egyptian government over the monorail system.
The prospect of the creation of more jobs in Bombardier’s Derby plant comes after the company put its Belfast factory, which makes aeroplane wings, up for sale earlier this month, putting 3,600 workers at risk.
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Bombardier is in the process of spinning off its aviation business in a pivot towards the more lucrative passenger rail cars and corporate jets sub-sectors.