The regional government of the state of New South Wales on the east coast of Australia in October announced that it had selected the Connecting Sydney consortium, which also includes France's Alstom, Australian investment fund Capella Capital and Transdev, to carry out the project.

The 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) light-rail link with 19 stops will link Sydney's central business to the southeast of the city and will include stops in several key locations such Sydney Football Stadium and the University of New South Wales.

Work on the line is scheduled to start in April 2015 and it is expected to start operating at the beginning of 2019.

The light-rail link will allow carrying up to 15 percent more passengers during peak hours and provide 33 percent more seats during the day once it is completed.

The project is expected to provide a significant boost of more than $A 4 billion ($3.3 billion, $2.7 billion) in economic benefits to the New South Wales economy and create 10,000 jobs, according to Acciona.

News of the deal comes just days after it was revealed a US subsidiary of Spanish firm ACS has won a contract to build part of the first ever high-speed rail line in the US, a stretch of track which will eventually help connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in under three hours.