ALSTOM will be in a prime position to bid to construct Labor's new rolling stock which could act as a saviour for the Ballarat-based workshop which looked set to close next year.
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The $900 million announcement of 30 new metro trains and 20 VLocity carriages to be constructed if Labor is elected was made in Ballarat at the Alstom facility and included a 50 per cent minimum local content clause on all bids for the contract.
The Ballarat plant already has a local content manufacturing rate of around 45 per cent, meaning it will only require a small adjustment to meet Labor's new stricter guidelines on local content.
Given the short period of time before the election, the release of the next budget and 2018 deadline for work to have begun and all of the trains, the number of companies able to bid for the contract will be limited placing Alstom in the box seat for the contract.
However, Opposition leader Daniel Andrews stopped short of guaranteeing Alstom would win the contract, saying Alstom and Dandenong-based Bombardier would be the only two companies who would currently have the capacity to meet the guidelines.
"Obviously we need to run a competitive tender process and get the best value for Victorian taxpayers," he said.
"The best trains are being made here at the moment with the best skills but with what have I have announced today, $900 million for new trains with 50 per cent local content, I think Alstom and the Ballarat-based workshop are going to have a very strong future but only under a Labor government."
Mr Andrews described Alstom as a "stand out" candidate for the contract.
Alstom Victorian customer director Torben Fink-Jenson said if they did win the contract they would definitely continue to build trains in Ballarat.
"I think what we heard today was a commitment to ongoing manufacturing and that commitment is what Alstom welcomes as an organisation because it allows us to continue jobs and continue delivering trains into the Victorian market," he said.
The Courier has previously reported the company had been cut from a competitive tender to build 25 new Metro trains as part of a multi-billion dollar upgrade of the Dandenong rail corridor.
It was believed the fight to build the 25 trains sat between two Asian rail giants who were competing to win the contract.
The plant has been at risk of closure multiple times in the past, with the facility often forced to wait until an election cycle before hearing of the potential for any new contracts.
