Bombardier’s Chinese JV to supply 16 new high-speed train CR400AF cars

Credit: Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation has announced that its Chinese joint venture, Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd. (BST), has been awarded a contract from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (CHINA RAILWAY) to supply 16 new Chinese standard high-speed train CR400AF cars for China’s evolving high-speed rail network.

The 16 cars will be configured into two eight-car trainsets with an operating speed of 350km/h. The contract is valued at approximately 297 million CNY ($46 million). Bombardier Transportation owns 50 per cent of the shares in BST, which is consolidated by Bombardier Transportation’s partner CRRC Sifang Rolling Stock Co., Ltd.

“We thank CHINA RAILWAY’s trust and support for awarding this repeated order within two months, and we appreciate very much our China team’s tremendous efforts and excellent performance in delivering the state-of-art trains at quality, within budget and on time, despite the challenge of COVID-19. We are confident in keeping our excellent performance in 2021 and sustainable success in China,” said Jianwei Zhang, President of Bombardier Transportation China.

BST was first chosen to supply the new Chinese standard high-speed train cars in 2018, and since then has delivered a total of 448 350km/h CR400AF and CR400AF-A cars. In November 2020, BST was awarded an order to supply 112 CR300AF train cars to CHINA RAILWAY, and now BST has been awarded the second order to supply 16 CR400AF train cars in a short period of time. All 16 cars will be delivered by the end of June 2021.

Bombardier Transportation in China is the full solution provider across the entire value chain. From vehicles and propulsion to services and design, Bombardier Transportation in China has seven joint ventures, six wholly foreign-owned enterprises and more than 8,000 employees. Together, the joint ventures have delivered 4,700 railway passenger cars, 580 electric locomotives and over 3,000 metro cars, Monorail, APM and trams to China’s growing rail transit markets. It is a major signalling supplier to the Chinese high-speed network and, through its joint ventures, propulsion equipment and signalling systems are utilised in a total of 30 Chinese cities.