Mining services firm Asciano Group (ASX: AIO) said on Thursday that it has been awarded a 10-year $550 million hauling contract by Centennial Coal Company Ltd to transport some 4.5 million tonnes of coal from Centennial's mine site in the Southern and Western Coalfields regions of New South Wales.

Asciano said that its subsidiary, Pacific National, would be the main player in the hauling agreement as company chief executive Mark Rowsthorn said that "Centennial Coal is a long term customer of Pacific National and has solid growth prospects ahead."

Mr Rowsthorn added that Asciano is upbeat that its business relationship with the coal miner would further improve with the renewal of the previous contract serviced by Pacific National as "we look forward to growing our partnership with Centennial and continuing to deliver superior quality of services for the long term."

Apart from the new contract already secured with Centennial Coal, Asciano also revealed that three new long-term agreements were also finalised with Austra, Integra Coal and Muswellbrook Coal Company.

As with the Centennial deal, the three contracts, according to Asciano, were springboards from previous services already rendered by the mining services firm as it added that more than $275 million in combined revenues would be delivered by the contract services.

Also, the company said that Whitehaven Coal and Idemitsu Boggabri had initiated amendments on Asciano's contract agreements with the two companies, opting to upgrade for further train capacity, which is set to start operations in the last quarter of calendar 2011.