No sign of rethink over Bombardier bid for Derby trainmaker

An MP has told ITV Central that at least one of the three civil servants who were suspended over the West Coast trains bid also worked on the bid which Derby train maker Bombardier lost.

It went to Siemens instead.

A rail magazine has reported that two of the three people suspended worked on the Bombadier deal but tonight the department for transport was unable to confirm or deny this categorically.

There's further concern over the decision not to give Bombardier the contract to build trains for Thameslink.

And the concern stems from the Virgin bid to run the West Coast mainline.

That bid process has been pulled after the secretary of State, Patrick Mcloughlin found "completely unacceptable mistakes" made by civil servants - leading to three of them being suspended.

A rail magazine has reported that two of the three people suspended also worked on the Bombardier bid.

We asked the Department for Transport if this was correct.

It didn't anwer that question specifically but instead said:

But a Derby MP says at least one of the suspended civil servants was involved in the Bombardier deal.

Four other MPs wrote to the secretary of state saying they didn't want to the mistakes made by the civil servants in the West Coast bid to have been repeated in the Bombardier Thameslink bid.

But tonight there's no sign of a rethink from the department which told us they expcet to sign contracts with Siemens in the New year.