China trainmaker CSR sets sights on London's £50b high-speed rail project

China's top trainmaker plans to go head-to-head with European rivals such as Alstom in bidding for a range of contracts including rolling stock for Britain's £50 billion (HK$580 billion) High Speed 2 rail line.

CSR Corp would seek to make and maintain the 360 km/h trains at the heart of one of the world's biggest infrastructure projects, said Li Donglin, the chief executive of rail technology arm Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric. It could also build the track and manage the network.

Construction of the first phase of HS2 linking London and Birmingham is due to begin in 2017, with trains running from 2026, followed by an extension to Manchester and Leeds opening by 2033.

While competing to provide trains could mean taking on TGV-maker Alstom, Siemens of Germany and Japan's Hitachi, CSR could bid for a wide variety of work, Li said.

"Not only trains, but also services, including the track, and maintenance and upkeep to make sure everything is safe," he said. "Our cost of construction is cheaper than the other suppliers and we have been operating for so many years."

China, which has developed the world's largest high-speed train network as part of its economic transformation, is targeting contracts in developed and emerging markets to turn its expertise into export revenue.