PARIS, FRANCE – Three hundred French train stations have seen their platforms trimmed to make room for new, fatter trains – and another 1,000 will get the same treatment by the end of 2016, two French rail bodies said 21 May.
France’s train tracks and platforms are of varying sizes, many of them dating back to a time when there were no standards. The new Alstom and Bombardier region trains, 341 of them, were ordered without it being clear that they would fit on the tracks, newspaper Le Canard Enchainée revealed Wednesday, and the two agencies’ statement later in the day confirmed it.
The trim job is the result of an apparent lack of communication between the two groups, Société nationale des Chemins de fer (SNCF) and the Réseau ferré de France (RFF). A project has been underway for some time to combine the two; it will be presented to parliament in June.