“As China’s first high-speed railway project in the United States, the project will be a landmark in overseas investment for the Chinese railway sector and serve as a model of global cooperation”, said Yang Zhongmin, chairman of China Railway worldwide Co., Ltd.
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If this opens up the United States market for [Chinese rail firms], opportunities for future expansion will increase.
Supported by $100 million in initial capital, this new 370 km(s) high-speed rail line will connect Southern Nevada and Southern California. Beijing recently clinched contracts in Russian Federation , although it has faced hurdles in Mexico and Indonesia due to bureaucratic flip-flops in those countries.
The project will cost an estimated .7 billion and will take three years to build, according to China’s 21st Century Business Herald.
Just days before President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States , private company Xpresswest and China Railway global U.S. inked a deal that would lay out a double track spanning 185 miles between Las Vegas and Victorville, CA, which lies some 80 miles outside of the LA metropolitan area next to the Mojave Desert.
China Railway global was established this summer by a Chinese consortium led by national railway operator China Railway, the financial publication Caixin reported.
The companies did not elaborate on how the Chinese consortium would help accelerate the project. Construction on the railway is expected to begin in September 2016. The Chinese government through Premier Li Keqiang has been pushing its high-speed technology in emerging markets.
“We want to attain the position we deserve in the global market…There is no other company on earth that is able to simultaneously research and produce high-speed trains, electric multiple units, subways”, Cao Gangcai, CRRC’s vice chief economist, told Reuters in an interview.
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“With the environmental review process complete, all required federal right-of-way approvals in place, and having received the necessary licensing and approvals to construct and operate, XpressWest will provide a foundation for high-speed rail infrastructure in the Southwest Corridor”, XpressWest said on its website.
