MONTREAL -- Bombardier Transportation announced Monday that its Chinese joint venture Bombardier Sifang Transportation (BST) has been awarded a maintenance service contract for the high-speed train cars it has built for China's rail network.

The total value of the contract, which covers 656 cars, or 71 trains, is about US$357 million. Bombardier Transportation has a 50-per-cent interest in the joint venture.

Maintenance work under the contract is expected to be completed by the end of 2020, Bombardier said in a statement.

Bombardier has about 8,000 employees in China, where it supplies vehicles, propulsion systems and signaling services.

In early January, the BST joint venture announced it had won a US$427 million contract to supply 160 high-speed train cars.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2020.