CNR joint venture wins US$556.6 million Boston subway car contract
Mainland train maker China CNR Corp has won its first US order as part of a joint venture that will sell 284 subway cars to Boston for US$556.6 million, it said on its website yesterday.
Mainland train maker China CNR Corp has won its first US order as part of a joint venture that will sell 284 subway cars to Boston for US$556.6 million, it said on its website yesterday.
CNR said the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) had approved the contract and would buy 132 subway cars for Boston's red subway line and 152 for its orange line.
The train maker, which is also hoping to supply trains to California's high-speed rail project, said it had beaten global competitors to win the contract and become "the only [mainland] rail transportation equipment company to land in the United States".
The last time CNR won a transport equipment contract from a developed country was in 2011, when it sold vehicles to France.
MBTA said the subway cars bought from CNR would replace 44-year-old cars on the red line and 32-year-old ones on the orange line. The contract includes an option to buy 58 additional red-line cars.
It said six companies had submitted proposals, four of which met the minimum requirements, with CNR MA, a joint venture between CNR and China Changchun Railway Vehicles, submitting the lowest bid.
CNR MA plans to build a new manufacturing facility for final assembly of the vehicles in Springfield, Massachusetts, that will become its US headquarters.
MBTA said the Chinese company planned to invest US$60 million of its own resources in the facility.
The factory will include more than 150,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space and create more than 150 new manufacturing jobs and 100 new construction jobs.
CNR announced earlier this week that it had won the biggest train contract in Thailand - for 115 passenger train carriages worth about 4.6 billion baht (HK$1.1 billion).
