Germany's Siemens has teamed up with a Chinese consortium to supply trains and equipment for 450-km (280 mile) railway in Saudi Arabia, the FT reported on Wednesday. Citing unnamed sources, the paper said Siemens has abandoned its initial bid with the Saudi Binladin Group, in a move to position itself as a frontrunner in a consortium led by China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation. No one at Siemens, which is expected to supply signaling and electrification equipment for the high-speed railroad, could immediately be reached for comment. The Haramain Railway, or the Two Holy Mosques railroad, will link Makkah and its second-most sacred city, Medina, to the Kingdom's commercial hub Jeddah on the Red Sea coast. The Chinese consortium also includes China Railway Construction Corp and the Beijing Railway Administration. France's Alstom and South Korea's Samsung are also among the five pre-qualified consortiums bidding for the final phase of the high-speed link. No one at Siemens UK could be reached immediately for comment. In a sign of the growing global competitiveness of Chinese rail manufacturers, Siemens abandoned its own bid as part of a consortium with the Saudi Binladin Group. Instead, it has joined a bid led by state-owned China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation for the second phase of the Haramain high-speed rail project, according to people familiar with the situation. Siemens will provide signalling and electrification equipment to the Chinese consortium, which also includes China Railway Construction Corp and the Beijing Railway Administration. The Chinese bid is seen as the frontrunner - China Railway Construction Corp, which is also state-owned, was part of a consortium that won a $1.8 billion contract to build the first phase of the project last year. France's Alstom and South Korea's Hyundai and Samsung are also bidding for the second phase of Haramain, according to a source.
