CNR subway cars models displayed in an exhibition in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Photo: IC

  

China CNR Corp, the world's largest train maker in terms of sales, was awarded a contract to build 284 new subway cars in the US state of Massachusetts, the company said in an announcement on its website on Thursday.

The Board of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation voted unanimously on Wednesday (US time) to greenlight the contract worth $566.6 million with CNR MA Corporation, a venture of CNR, AP reported.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has yet to issue an official announcement about the approval.

The contract with CNR MA Corporation to deliver 284 new subway cars, replacing decades-old vehicles for the Red and Orange Lines, "also includes the option to purchase an additional 58 Red Line cars," the MBTA said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.

In a sign of Chinese train makers' growing appetite for expanding into overseas markets, CSR Corp has joined the bidding to supply high-speed rail cars to California, pitting itself against its chief rival CNR Corp, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing an official from CSR's publicity department surnamed Xu.

CSR's expression of interest in the project did not involve CNR, Xu said.

US-based SunGroup USA revealed it had joined the bidding consortium that includes CNR, along with its subsidiary Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co, in a pitch to supply up to 95 trains traveling as fast as 354 kilometers per hour in California's $68 billion high-speed project, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday.

Both CNR and CSR could not be immediately reached for comment.