Siemens pulls out of Crossrail bid

Siemens has withdrawn from the bidding for a contract to make rolling stock for Crossrail, enhancing the prospects for UK group Bombardier.

Siemens said on Friday it no longer had the capacity to deliver 600 carriages for the new line.

The German engineering giant added it would go ahead with the procurement process for the new line linking east and west London as it was busy with other projects, such as building trains for Thameslink, which leaving the bidding to Bombardier, Hitachi and Spanish group CAF.

''Crossrail is a very large project and, since first undertaking our initial assessment of capacity and deliverability, Siemens has won multiple additional orders,'' the company said in a statement. The group would, however still provide other equipment for Crossrail, which was currently Europe's largest infrastructure project, including signalling and control systems.

Bombardier, which operates the UK's last remaining rolling stock manufacturing site controversially missed out on the £1.6 billion contract for 1,141 new carriages for Thameslink trains last year, which Siemens won.

According to the company, the decision to pull out of the Crossrail competition was partly due to the Thameslink contract it bagged.