A Sino-Chilean consortium unveiled to Chilean president Michelle Bachelet an unsolicited proposal for a US$1.6-billion high speed passenger train connecting the capital city of Santiago with the Pacific port city of Valparaiso, 127 km apart. The consortium is ready to start construction immediately and pledged that the project would be entirely privately financed, freeing Chile from awarding construction grants and supporting the train service. The proposed high-speed train would be the first of its kind in Chile.

The consortium, known as TVS (Tren Veloz Santiago), is led by China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC), a Chinese government-backed maker of railway equipment that has won mass transit projects in emerging markets. Sigdo Koppers, a fast-growing Chilean engineering and mining firm, is the local partner, though how they will split ownership of the consortium was not revealed. CREC said it looked forward to taking on its first Latin American deal in Chile.