Britain opens bidding for £2.75b high speed train contract

London

BRITAIN opened the bidding on Friday for a £2.75 billion (S$4.87 billion) contract to build a fleet of trains for a new high speed railway project to link London with the north of England, work on which is due to begin this year.

The government was looking to order up to 60 trains, which could each seat more than 1,000 passengers and travel at around 225 miles per hour, and planned to award the contract in 2019, UK transport minister Chris Grayling said.