213m pounds order for GEC Alsthom consortium

A CONSORTIUM led by GEC Alsthom, the Anglo- French power and transportation engineering group, has won a dollars 319m ( pounds 213m) contract to supply 32 trains to the Taiwan Railway Administration, writes Mary Fagan.

The order includes 64 locomotives, 336 passenger coaches and associated traction equipment.

The other partners in the project are Hyundai of Korea and Union Carriage & Wagon of South Africa. GEC Alsthom, a 50/50 joint venture between Britain's GEC and Alcatel Alsthom of France, said the company had a large part of the contract.

GEC Alsthom hopes to win a separate Taiwanese high- speed train contract, potentially worth billions of dollars. The company is waiting for an invitation to tender for this project.

Last year GEC Alsthom won a dollars 2.4bn order from the Korea High Speed Rail Construction Authority to supply trains and equipment based on France's TGV trains.