Thales, Siemens win EUR 500m contract for trains in Spain

(PARIS) - The French and German industrial giants Thales and Siemens said Monday they had won a contract worth more than 500 million euros to revamp safety systems on a high-speed train line in Spain.

"The order has a total value of around 510 million euros ($633 million) for the consortium," both companies said in a statement.

The two firms will modernise the control, signalling and safety equipment on the roughly 340-kilometre (211-mile) section of the high-speed line between Olmedo and Ourense in northern Spain.

The consortium is 55-percent owned by Thales with the remaining 45 percent held by Siemens.

A high-speed derailment on another section of this high-speed line in July 2013 caused 79 deaths on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain's deadliest train accident since 1944.