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SoCalDem

(103,856 posts) Thu May 22, 2014, 07:51 AM May 2014

Oops.. (French trains are too fat) [View all]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27502184

Two thousand new French trains 'too fat for railway'

21 May 2014 Last updated at 10:57 BST

The French train operator SNCF has discovered that 2,000 new trains it ordered at a cost of 15bn euros ($20.5bn; £12.1bn) are too wide for many regional platforms.

The blunder has so far cost the rail operator over 50m euros ($68.4m; £40.6m).

Construction work has begun on widening hundreds of platforms.

Christian Fraser in Paris says it is "an embarrassing situation".

11 replies

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Highlight:

Oops.. (French trains are too fat) [View all] SoCalDem May 2014 OP

Send them to the gym shenmue May 2014 #1

Yikes! That's a serious error. Laelth May 2014 #2

Reminds me of the time they built a nuclear plant with a backwards blueprint. Octafish May 2014 #3

If I lived in France, my caboose would be oversized too. chrisa May 2014 #4

The food is superb but the portions are not over-large, and people walk a lot. nt MADem May 2014 #5

Say "cheese"! struggle4progress May 2014 #6

Surely, if the trains are too wide ... surrealAmerican May 2014 #7

Picky, picky you think words ought to mean what they mean? TexasProgresive May 2014 #8

I'm sure that's what they meant IronLionZion May 2014 #9

How do you say, "D'Oh!" in French? nt MrScorpio May 2014 #10

"Do these platforms make my caboose look fat?" 11 Bravo May 2014 #11