PARIS -- The French and German industrial giants Thales (IW 1000/240) and Siemens (IW 1000/35) 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," the companies said in a joint statement.
The two companies will modernize the control, signaling and safety equipment on the roughly 340-kilometer (211-mile) section of the high-speed line between Olmedo and Ourense in northern Spain.
The consortium is 55% owned by Thales with the remaining 45% 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.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014