Brisbane’s Cross River Rail Authority has contracted Huawei to deliver its new digital signalling system, entrusting the safety of passengers to the Chinese company considered a “high-risk vendor” by the federal government.

It’s understood Huawei bid about $18m to supply and imple­ment the technology, undercutting rivals by up to 50 per cent. The Brisbane rail network alread­y carries 55 million passengers a year, while the system will also control the movement of freight trains carrying goods to and from the Port of Brisbane.

A Cross River Rail spokesman said the Department of Home ­Affairs was consulted prior to the contract being finalised for Huawei to deliver the European Train Control System technology. “The department provided advice about what process to follow and this advice was adhered to,” the spokesman said. The decision to engage ­Huawei was made by project contractor Hitachi. The Department of Home Affairs said it advised owners and operators of Australia’s critical infrastructure, including states and territories, on how to identify and manage nation­al security risks on a case-by-case basis.

A Huawei spokesman said the company was a world leader in deliveri­ng rail network technol­ogy. “In Australia, we have success­fully delivered our tech­nology to Sydney Trains for over 10 years and last year won the contract to deliver our technology to the Perth Metro project,” he said.

It’s understood other train networks in Australia have implemented 2G GSM systems with upgradable cores so they can more easily move to 5G technology when the 2G network is decommissioned, but Huawei would be unable to upgrade the system to 5G because of the ban on its ­involvement in the next-generation communications network.