CONNECTING Stockholm, preferred bidder to take over operation of Stockholm’s Tunnelbana metro network from MTR in 2025, has been awarded a temporary contract, while legal challenges to its original bid are concluded.
The consortium of Go-Ahead Group (55%) and ComfortDelGro (45%) was originally awarded an 11-year operating contract in January by local authority Region Stockholm. The contract specified a start date of May 2 2025.
A legal challenge by under-bidder Keolis was rejected by the Administrative Court on September 18. The other unsuccessful bidders are understood to have been current operator MTR, which has since pulled out of Scandinavia, and Transdev.
However, the ruling in favour of Region Stockholm is now being challenged at the Court of Appeal which decided on September 30 that the contract cannot be enacted until the appeal is resolved.
For this reason, on October 23 the local authority chose to award a temporary contract, starting on November 2 2025, with a two-year term and on similar terms to the original deal. The temporary agreement could be extended beyond two years, according to Connecting Stockholm.
While the value of the original contract was not disclosed, local media has reported that it is around SKr40bn ($US 3.78bn), with Keolis offering the lowest bid to operate the metro network.
