THE German manufacturer that beat UK train builder Bombardier to a £1.4billion contract wants ministers to keep the financial details secret – so it can win future bids.
Siemens has urged the Government to ignore MPs’ pleas to reveal how it won the Thameslink deal last year, which put 1,400 British jobs at risk.
The transport select committee said disclosure of how much it had undercut Bombardier by was in the public interest.
But Steve Scrimshaw, of Siemens, said revealing financial calculations would undermine his firm’s ability to win the forthcoming London Crossrail contract. Crossrail is a £15billion project linking Heathrow to Canary Wharf and is vital to Derby-based Bombardier’s UK survival.
Mr Scrimshaw said disclosure was not beneficial to any party involved in a bidding process and information was “commercially sensitive and confidential”.
But committee chairman Louise Ellman said: “There’s been so much concern that it would be in the public interest to release the details.”
The Department for Transport said: “We are bound by agreement not to release confidential information.”