US rail deal termination a valuable lesson

XpressWest Enterprises, a private US railway company, unilaterally terminated a deal with China Railway International on Jun 8 to build a high-speed railway line from Los Angeles, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Just nine months ago, XpressWest had announced that CRI, the Chinese consortium made up of several State-owned railway equipment subsidiaries and service providers, would build the 370-kilometer railway. The work on the project was scheduled to start in September and total investment was estimated to be $12.7 billion.

China Railway Corp, CRI's main shareholder and the country's railway service provider, will take all necessary measures to ensure that its interests in the United States are protected, a consortium official has said.