BERLIN - Bombardier Transportation (TSX:BBD.B) has signed two contracts with Transport for London worth US$558 million to build and maintain another 45 four-car electric multiple train units.

The first contract covers the design and manufacture of 180 new vehicles and the second is a 35-year agreement providing maintenance for the new vehicles.

The contracts include an option for up to 24 additional trains and another to extend the maintenance support for five years.

Bombardier Transportation, which is based in Berlin, says the new trains will be built in Derby, England and will create hundreds of jobs.

Bombardier had announced during the Paris Air Show in mid-June that it had been selected as the preferred bidder for the trains.

The company had won an original deal to provide 57 trains starting in 2007 for a suburban rail network in Britain that serves Greater London and Hertfordshire with 111 stations on several routes.