Voith Railservices maintain trams in Utrecht

The 45 trams in the Dutch region of Utrecht will be maintained for the next eight years by Voith Railservices BV. Greater Utrecht Authority (Bestuur Regio Utrecht, or BRU), the tram operator, chose this company based on an open tender. One of BRU’s main requirements was that the maintenance of the trams, which includes overhaul and the repair of damage, should be carried out properly, reliably and cost effectively. Most of the trams will undergo a general overhaul in the coming months.

European tender leads to Voith Railservices

Every year, some 12 million people use the light-rail train line between Utrecht, Nieuwegein and IJsselstein. BRU owns and operates the tramway tracks, the depot, the tram stops and the 45 trams. The maintenance contract for the trams was tendered this summer according to the European open tender procedure. BRU chose a tender method that has a strong focus on quality, the so-called best-value procurement method. The evaluation consisted of reviewing the submitted documents and interviewing employees who are involved in the described maintenance work. This resulted in the choice of Voith Railservices in Twello (NL).

Regular maintenance until the end of 2019

Voith submitted an ambitious and explicit plan that described their vision of maintenance. In the meantime, Voith has reworked the proposal into an action plan. BRU is absolutely confident that Voith is the right partner to maintain the trams in the coming years. BRU operates 27 light-rail trains that were commissioned in 1983. In the next few months, these trains will undergo a general technical overhaul and a facelift. The other trams are peak-hour trams, which are a different type of tram and are generally younger. An annual budget of € 2.7 million has been set aside for the regular maintenance of the light-rail trains until the end of 2019.

Best-value procurement, with a focus on quality

The philosophy behind the best-value procurement method is that all of the parties, meaning the client and the contractor, do what they do best. The objective is to find a contractor that is able to limit the risks that can arise as the result of future uncertainties and can use chances to improve the maintenance process at the same time. The client specifies the targets that need to be met but does not describe in detail what the contractor has to do to meet them. Experience has shown that this type of tender benefits the quality of both the processes and the results.

Voith Industrial Services, a division of Voith GmbH, is one of the leading providers of technical services for key industries as automotive, energy, chemicals and petrochemicals as well as mechanical engineering. With 20.000 employees at 170 locations worldwide, the company has posted sales of EUR 962 million in 2010.

Voith GmbH is setting new standards in the energy, oil & gas, paper, resources and transport & automotive markets. Founded in 1867, Voith now has 40.000 employees, sales of EUR 5.2 billion and locations in about 50 countries worldwide, making it one of Europe’s largest family-owned companies.

www.voithindustrialservices.com