Bond Dickinson has advised on the £200m-plus purchase and financing of a new train fleet for Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). The trains are to be built by Siemens in Germany and are planned to start running services in 2018.
The financing structure of the fleet was innovative because it involved a new entrant to the market for funding train fleets, called Rock Rail, which has financial backers including Standard Life and Aviva. The deal was the first of its kind in UK rail finance.
The Bond Dickinson team was led by David Rewcastle, Head of Transport and Infrastructure and included lawyers Will Bonas, David Millard and Joe Causer.