The British firm Arriva and Transcentrum Bus have been eliminated from a tender for railway passenger transport between Olomouc and Ostrava. Both companies failed to present the required certificates in the tender, which was launched by the Czech Transport Ministry as a pilot project for opening the railways to private transport businesses.
Arriva will appeal the ministry’s decision, its railway division director, Jaroslav Richter, told ČTK. The only other bid was filed by RegioJet, meaning the ministry will have to cancel the tender as it would not be competitive. Arriva failed to meet the condition that each participant has to have at least two people qualified to operate railway transportation on its management board, according to the ministry. The ministry has been strict with this condition, it says, in order to avoid a situation where the winning company lost its only qualified manager.
