You know what they say: Big trains, little tracks

Too wide ... A new SNCF Regiolis Regional Express Train at the Vaugirard railway station in Paris. France's rail networks have been left embarrassed after ordering new trains that don't fit in many stations, requiring them to "shave" platforms at a cost of $75 million so far. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

France's rail network has been left red-faced after ordering around 2000 new trains that are too wide for the stations — after engineers forgot to double-check their measurements.

The embarrassing mistake has sparked mocking disbelief and anger in France, as well as calls to fire those responsible for the costly error.

The platforms are now too close together for the new trains to pull into the stations.

The train operator has been forced to secretly "shave" down the size of 300 older platforms to make the new trains fit — an operation that has already cost taxpayers 50 million euros ($75 million).

Debacle ... A Regional Express Train waits at a platform at the Saint Lazare station in Paris. Around 1300 stations are too narrow for the new trains. Picture: AP Source: AP

French Transport Minister Theirry Mariani called the mess "comically tragic", reports the Telegraph UK.

The blunder was first reported by satirical and investigative magazine Le Canard Enchaine, which wrote: "The Paris-Frest train is entering the station. Please pull in your stomachs,"

The mix-up began when France's national train operator SNCF ordered the new trains from French manufacturer Alstom and Canada's Bombardier.

It asked the regional train authority, the RFF, to work out the correct measurements for smaller, local train stations.

RFF reported there were currently 10 centimetres to spare on either side of trains — and the SCNF accordingly authorised the new trains to be 20 centimetres wider.

However, the RFF had failed to check its older stations, many of whose platforms were significantly closer together "from an era where trains were considerably less portly," the report said.

"We discovered the problem a little late," said RFF spokesman Christophe Piednoel. "It's as if you bought a Ferrari and wanted to get it in your garage only to discover the garage was not quite the right size because you'd never had a Ferrari before."

The SNCF in a statement put the number of affected platforms at 1300, many of which were built more than 50 years ago.

"SNCF's wise engineers forgot to verify the reality in the field," wrote Le Canard.

The wider trains were a response to public requirements, and in line with international norms, it said.

"It's a question of bringing the platforms in line with the same norms."

The rails themselves will need to be moved in at least one station to avoid collisions, the news reports said.

The RFF has allocated 80 million euros ($120 million) for the work, mainly in the southwest and centre of the country, the reports said.

OTHER EMBARASSING ENGINEERING BLUNDERS:

CITIGROUP CENTRE

Citigroup's New York headquarters is among the most recognisable buildings in Midtown, with its 45-degree slanted roof and 9-story stilts at the base which were designed to accommodate the church that refused to move out. In 1978, a year after the main tenant moved in, its structural engineer got an unwelcome phone call from an undergraduate architecture student who had discovered that the building could blow over in hurricane-strength winds. The engineer worked out a secret evacuation plan with the city, and quietly dispatched teams of welders through the night for weeks to clandestinely fortify the building. The true story emerged years later.

Skyline ... The Citigroup headquarters in New York. The building had to be secretly evacuated and fortified after a student realised it would blow over in a hurricane. Picture: AP Source: AP

TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE

Known as "Galloping Gertie" during its brief life, the bridge in Washington state became famous for twisting and bending like a ribbon, before collapsing in a windstorm on Nov. 7, 1940, four months after opening. The vertigo-inducing collapse was famously captured on film. Still cited as one of the world's major engineering failures, the wreckage is now among the world's largest man-made reefs. A new, safer version opened in 1950.

"Galloping Gerti" ... A Nov. 7, 1940 photo shows a large section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsing into Puget Sound, after bending and twisting in the wind. Picture: AP Source: AP

SQUARE-WINDOWED AIRLANES

Jetliners were just coming into their own, with the pioneering Comet, built by the British company de Havilland. Then, in 1954, two of the jets broke apart mid-flight. The reason? After putting the Comet's fuselage into a giant water tank, researchers figured it out: square windows. Metal fatigue was causing small cracks to form at the edges of the windows, and the pressurized cabins exploded.

MARS ORBITER

Two sets of engineers, one working in metric and the other working in the US imperial system, failed to communicate at crucial moments in constructing the $125 million spacecraft. The result? It crashed into the Martian atmosphere and probably ended up orbiting the sun, lost in space for perpetuity. NASA said the error had probably been causing glitches in the mission for 416 million miles before the spectacularly embarrassing failure on Sept. 23, 1999.

MILLENNIUM BRIDGE

It was the first pedestrian bridge to span London's Thames River in a century, and closed two days after opening in 2000 after it developed a wobble under the footsteps of thousands of visitors — first eager, then a little seasick. The error was similar to the one that took down the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, but with a twist — it was caused by a human tendency to match footsteps to the sway of the span to keep balance, magnifying lateral movements. It reopened in 2002 after a 5 million-pound ($9 million) repair.

Footbridge ... The Millennium Bridge over the river Thames in London. It was closed just two days after opening in 2000 after it developed a wobble under the footsteps of thousands of visitors. Picture: AP Source: AP

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

You know what they say: Big trains, little tracks

Dengan url

http://gosipesbuk.blogspot.com/2014/05/you-know-what-they-say-big-trains.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

You know what they say: Big trains, little tracks

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

You know what they say: Big trains, little tracks

sebagai sumbernya