Eurotrain

Eurotrain was a joint venture formed by Siemens and GEC-Alsthom (today Alstom) to market high-speed rail technology in Asia. In 1997, it was one of two competitors to supply the core system of Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR), and it was awarded the status of preferred bidder by concessionaire THSRC. Eurotrain assembled a demonstration train, but later THSRC decided to award the contract to a rival consortium, leading to a legal battle ending in damage payments for Eurotrain in 2004.

Eurotrain was a joint venture of Siemens (the main maker of the German ICE) and GEC-Alsthom (the main maker of the French TGV), formed in March 1996 with the aim to pool their high-speed rail technologies and market it jointly in Asia. The companies wanted to avoid a repeat of a competitive battle they had for Korea's KTX, which resulted in a loss for Siemens and limited benefits for victorious GEC-Alsthom. GEC-Alsthom held 60% and Siemens held 40% in the joint venture. The first and only high-speed project Eurotrain was involved in was THSR.

THSR was realised as a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project, but Eurotrain was already involved at the stage of the bidding for the BOT franchise. The bids of the two rival consortia were both based on specific high-speed rail technology platforms: Taiwan High Speed Rail Consortium (THSRC) allied with Eurotrain, while the rival Chunghwa High Speed Rail Consortium (CHSRC) allied with Taiwan Shinkansen Consortium (TSC), which offered Japanese Shinkansen technology. On 25 September 1997, THSRC (later renamed Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation with the same acronym) was selected as preferred bidder.

Also in 1997, THSRC declared Eurotrain the preferred bidder to supply the core technology, which included the high-speed trains, track, electrification, signalling and communication.

During the final negotiations, THSRC and Eurotrain sought to convince BOHSR about the technical viability of their offer by staging a demonstration run with a hybrid train assembled specifically for this purpose (see Demonstration train).

The Eschede train disaster on 3 June 1998 didn't reduce THSRC's chances: although BOHSR wanted detailed information from Germany about the causes of the accident, it recognised that Eurotrain's train type in the THSRC offer did not use the wheel type the break of which was the root cause of the derailment. THSRC finally signed the agreement about the BOT contract with the government on July 23, 1998.

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