French red faces over trains that are 'too wide'

[pre65]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27497727

[Tony]

Oops ! Back to the drawing board ! Gaston, where did we put that old guillotine ?

[Madcaravanner]

I sat reading this around 7am in a Railway Gazette and then it was on the news

Just HOW? do Railway planners and executives get it so wrong that they have to change the INFRASTRUCTURE to accommodate the trains

WHY? did someone not point out the error before they were built

OH Forgot the French are the best at everything they NEVER make a mistake

OR

are the best at making mistakes too

[boilersuit]

You'd think they'd thoroughly test the first one off the production line, and then modify the design before making any more.

[Bobjork]

I wonder if these trains will be to narrow for the swedish railway. We have very wide trains here...

Anyway... I really wonder how this could happen... but it has happen before, not too wide but not able to take curves etc etc.
Oh, and the type A32 tram in Stockholm (built 1997) were so low that the safety plank above the third rail had to be replaced with a rubber protection so the trams could go from the depot (tram- and metro) to route 12...

[Beeyar Wunby]

It just shows what happens when you divide a railway up.

We had exactly the same debacle here in the UK when Railtrack replaced BR.

It's called asset management, which is a posh way of saying that you know about the resources you have .....and clearly they don't.

How hard would it have been to run a gauging train over the routes that the new stock was to use ?

Here on the Thameslink route they strapped polystyrene sheets to the side of a unit which was potential replacement stock and worked it through the London tunnels. I'm told the sheets were pretty battered and gouged at the end, and so the 319s stayed with us.

It's really not rocket science, but this sort of pragmatism seems to beyond the capability of most modern executives.

[Ploughman]

2007 or 2008 Bridge replacement near Pontefract racecourse.
The day before the new bridge was due to go in somebody finally compared the actual length of the new bridge with the proposed gap, before they broke the track.
Result - New bridge 200mm short.
Result - 1 year delay to re apply for the possession and cut in a spacer section.

[Gandalf]

Was there not a similar problem over here many years ago that restricted the GWR Kings to certain routes?
John.

[derek hopkins]

good old french strike again

[pre65]

Originally Posted by Gandalf

Was there not a similar problem over here many years ago that restricted the GWR Kings to certain routes?
John.

I thought that was a weight problem ?