The deadline for submitting offers for the privatization of TRAINOSE ended on Monday, with TAIPED officials claiming that the there were three offers from the SNCF (France), RZD (Russia) and Grampet (Romania).

According to TAIPED officials the French proposal is considered to be serious, based on good data and appears to have secured support from other business partners. The company will likely try to cooperate with Alstom in the privatization of ROSCO, the rolling cart maintenance firm. If SNCF were to enter the Greek market, it would challenge the dominance of the German Deutsch Bahn in freight transports.

The offer from RZD, which is the largest railroad company in the world, was in the form of a joint venture with GEK-TERNA from Greece. The Russian plan is to connect the Greek railroad to a proposed network that would connect Asia and Europe by land and sea. This will make the Aegean a commercial entrance and exit point to Europe.

The Russians however want to the Port of Thessaloniki to be included in the package. This presents a series of problems since the troika bailout deal stipulates separate privatizations and Brussels is suspicious of third countries investing in strategic infrastructures.

Romanian firm Grampet on the other hand wants to establish its dominance in the Balkans. To that end it has already purchased HZ Cargo in Croatia, has made a bid for BDZ in Bulgaria, has established operations in Hungary and is quickly expanding in Germany, Austria, Moldova and Serbia.

China’s COSCO did not make an offer, as the repeated request to extend the competition was rejected. There are still hopes though that COSCO will submit an offer at a later point as a joint-venture with other firms.

The Panhellenic Federation of Railroad Workers (POS) issued a statement condemning the government for “giving away” the company to foreign interests “at the request of the troika loan sharks”. The Federation adds that TAIPED is “giving away the property belonging to all Greeks” under the pretext of “so-called deficits”.

The Federation has announced its participation in the four-hour walk out organized by GSEE on Wednesday the 18th of September, between 11am and 3pm.