Limburg has awarded a 15-year licence for bus and regional train services to Arriva, a British company now owned by German railway group Deutsche Bahn.

The contract had been awarded to Abellio – a subsidiary of Dutch state-owned railway firm NS. However, in late April evidence emerged of ‘serious irregularities’ in the contract process.

The NS suspended two managers at its Qbuzz/Abellio subsidiary who are said to have accepted confidential information from a former worker at Veolia Transport Limburg.

They used this information to win the right to provide public transport services in the province. Veolia was also competing for the concession.

In the event, Arriva came second and the province has now awarded it the €2bn contract rather than re-run the tender process.

Veolia has said it will not accept the new situation and says the entire process should be repeated.