Posted on 05/21/2014 10:15:43 AM PDT by csvset
France’s SNCF rail network has ordered 2,000 trains for an expanded regional network that are too wide for hundreds of station platforms, entailing costly repairs, the national operator announced on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the RFF national rail operator confirmed the error, first reported by satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchaîné, in its Wednesday edition.
“We discovered the problem a bit late, we recognise that and we accept responsibility on that score,” Christophe Piednoel told France Info radio station, adding that the new trains would “meet the demands of the public” and that only 1,300 of 8,700 platforms needed work.
Construction work has already begun to displace equipment and widen hundreds of the platforms to accommodate the new trains, but hundreds more still need to be fixed, he said.
The mix-up arose when the RFF transmitted faulty dimensions for its train platforms to the SNCF, which was in charge of ordering trains as part of a broad modernisation effort, the Canard Enchaîné reported.
The RFF only gave the dimensions of platforms built less than 30 years ago, but most of France’s 1,200 platforms were built more than 50 years ago. Repair work has already cost 80 million euros ($110 million).
Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier blamed an “absurd rail system” for the problem, referring to changes made by a previous government in 1997.
“When you separate the rail operator [RFF] from the company [SNCF], it doesn’t work,” he told BFMTV.
Oh, merde.
Engineers who do not leave the wind tunnel and drawing board.
Kind of like Democrats who never leave academia.
Those who can, do. Those who can’t do, coach. Those who can’t do or coach, consult. Those who can’t do, coach or consult, work for the government.
I was wondering if and when someone would think of the two horse rump rule.
yes
Not an accident.
This is just an excuse to spend MORE of “other people’s money.”
A Frenchman named Bastiat wrote the book "Economic Sophisms" where he advised a way to create more small town jobs in France. Bastiat's idea was to vary the distance from track to track so that wide rail train contents would have to be transferred to less-wide rail trains, and vice-versa, in a town to town pattern.
Speaking of “Economic Sophisms,” The stupidity inherent in “Obama Care” is a good example of sophistry.
I aims to please (and so does louise). ;-)
The solution is to demolish the city and build a new one.
Measure twice, cut once.
Our administration would never admit error. It would blame it all on Bush instead. Or greedy capitalist pigs. Or anyone critical of islamoNazi terrorist thugs.
The story goes that the master carpenter of the amusement park we frequented as kids built new boats for the “Over the Falls” water ride, one of the park’s most popular attractions. Working nearly alone, he took most of the off season to complete them.
Just before the park opened for the 1948 season, they floated the new boats in the pond at the start of the series of dark tunnels leading to the steep falls for which the ride is named. Not one boat leaked. Then one of the boats was released to the first concrete chute and tunnel: It promptly jammed in the chute about a third of the way in. It was pulled out and another tried with the same result. Every boat this poor fellow had spent 6 months building was too wide.
The story we all chose to believe was that the carpenter stayed drunk for the next several days. Late one night, he tied one end of a rope to a stout timber at the top of the last drop, put his head through a noose at the other and jumped. The story had it that he fell so far he was decapitated.
Investment tip: Go LONG on rope in the French Commodity Market.
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