Bruges (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Belgium chose Spanish company CAF for a €3.4 billion train contract, rejecting Alstom’s cheaper €107 million offer. Alstom and Siemens are challenging this in court, with a hearing on April 8, 2025.
Belgium is buying new trains, and they have picked a Spanish company called CAF to build them. This cost €3.4 billion. But a French company called Alstom offered to make the trains for €107 million less.
Even though Alstom was cheaper, the Belgian government chose CAF because they thought CAF’s trains were slightly better. Some people are upset because they think the price difference is too big to ignore.
They want the government to check if they made a mistake in choosing CAF over Alstom. They also want to know how the government decides which company to choose, and they want to make sure that everything is done fairly. They think the government should have picked the cheaper option, especially since the government is using taxpayer money to buy the trains.
Did NMBS overlook Belgian jobs in €3.4B train deal?
Some people are angry because the government didn’t consider how many jobs would be created in Belgium when they chose CAF over Alstom. Alstom has a lot of workers in Belgium, and they could lose their jobs if Alstom doesn’t get the contract. These people think that Belgian money should be used to help Belgian companies and workers.
The government mentioned that they can’t favour Belgian companies because of rules about how they have to spend money. Some politicians are asking for the government to check if they made a mistake in choosing CAF. They mentioned that this is a big problem because it shows how hard it is to decide how to spend money when you have to think about the cost, the quality, and how it will affect the economy.
According to the officials, 2 companies, Alstom and Siemens, think the government didn’t follow the rules. They are asking a court to look into it. If the court says the government made a mistake, it could take years to get new trains, and that would be bad for everyone. The court will hear from all the companies on April 8th, 2025.
Until a final decision is made by the Council of State, NMBS cannot yet start discussions with CAF,
the court said.
According to the officials, if Alstom and Siemens do not win the case, they might have to look for work in other countries. Some people think the government should have considered keeping jobs in Belgium when choosing the train company. This is making people talk about how European rules about choosing companies for government projects affect jobs in different countries.
With the orders that have now been confirmed, we have job security until the middle of next year. After that, hundreds of jobs are at risk,
says Freddy Bakker of the joint trade union front.
