Crossrail suitors line up - Telegraph As the first deadline for submissions approaches, FirstGroup and National Express will be joined by Arriva, Abellio and MTR of Hong Kong. Transport for London (TfL), which will oversee the bidding competition, has asked for "pre-qualification questionnaires" - detailed documents that set out a company's interest in the contract, to be submitted by Tuesday. The eight-year contract, which could potentially be extended to 10 years, is expected to be fiercely contested following a recent government decision to delay re-letting Britain's other major rail services in the wake of last year's West Coast Main Line fiasco. A preferred bidder for the line - which, when construction is complete, will run from Maidenhead to the west of London to Shenfield to the east - will be named by the end of next year before the first services start in 2015. Many of the major train operators have continued to employ costly bid teams, which were put in place before the West Coast debacle, to compete for some of the 15 rail franchises that had been due to expire by October 2018. Following the scandal , the Government has published a revised franchise timetable, which pushes most competitions beyond the next general election in 2015. "Crossrail is very timely," said one industry source. Arriva, the UK bus and rail operator bought by Germany's Deutsche Bahn in 2010, will be among the early bidders and will go head-to-head with MTR, its joint-venture partner on London Overground services. It is understood National Express and FirstGroup will also meet Tuesday's deadline, while a spokesman for Abellio confirmed that the Dutch company had been looking at the Crossrail contract.