General Electric Co. (GE) and China’s largest rail vehicle maker are to invest 50 million U.S. dollars in a U.S.-based joint venture to make high-speed rail (HSR) trains.
GE would sign a cooperative framework agreement with CSR Corporation Limited (CSR) to establish a venture to advance high-speed and other rail technology in the United States, said a statement from GE.
The joint venture would create 250 jobs in the United States by 2012 in the first phase of the agreement, it said.
The GE Transportation-CSR venture was expected to be the first U.S. manufacturer ready to supply HSR passenger trains for projects in Florida and California, GE vice chairman John Rice said.
It would also manufacture medium-speed passenger trains and transit rail vehicles for urban areas in the United States, he noted.
“We are committed to advancing the global high-speed rail technology market and this agreement provides a significant opportunity for infrastructure and business growth,” he said.
The agreement marks a critical step to support and advance passenger rail development in the United States, after a memorandum of understanding was signed by GE and China’s Ministry of Railways in November 2009.
CSR chairman Zhao Xiaogang said CSR and GE would create a leading passenger transportation business by combining CSR’s extensive experience with GE’s manufacturing and supply chain management expertise, as well as in-depth knowledge of the U.S. rail market.
China operates the world’s longest HSR network with a combined length of 7,531 kilometers. It plans to expand its railway network to 120,000 km by 2020, including 16,000 km of high-speed rail track.
Nations should expand mutually beneficial cooperation to promote safe, convenient, efficient and green railways, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang said at the seventh World Congress on High Speed Rail in Beijing Tuesday.
He said safety should be a priority, and called for more efforts to enhance innovation to turn out technology with independent intellectual property.
Next year, China aims to break the 574.8-km-per-hour speed record set by France’s TGV train in April 2007, an unnamed source with CSR said on Tuesday at the congress.
China’s CRH-380A train Friday set a speed record for unmodified commercial use at 486.1 km per hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.
