Mind the Gap: New French Trains Too Wide for Many Platforms

A railway blunder highlights how two French institutions are under pressure to show they can work together. Pictured, Strasbourg's station. Reuters

PARIS—France's state-run railway system on Wednesday admitted failing to mind the gap, after realizing that a fleet of new trains it has ordered are too wide to fit many of the country's stations.

Confirming a report in satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, train operator Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer and network owner Réseau Ferré de France said about 1,300 of France's 8,700 railway platforms must be trimmed to make way for the wider rolling stock.

It will cost about €50 million ($68.5 million) to alter the platforms to fit the new trains by 2016, when they are delivered, SNCF and RFF said.

"We discovered the problem a bit late," RFF spokesman Christophe Piednoël told French radio. "It's as if you bought a Ferrari and when you come to park it in your garage you realize your garage isn't exactly the right size for a Ferrari because you didn't have a Ferrari before."

A file picture taken earlier this year of the new SNCF Regiolis Regional Express Train, or TER, during its presentation at the Vaugirard railway station in Paris. The arrival in France of new and larger regional trains will require construction work to reconfigure some station platforms, as the trains are too wide. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The blunder highlights how both SNCF and RFF are under pressure to demonstrate how they can better work together after being separated into two entities 17 years ago.

The new trains, made by Alstom SA ALO.FR -1.03% and Bombardier Inc., BBD.B.T -1.02% were ordered by the SNCF in 2009 and 2010 for a total cost of €3 billion. The two institutions said they will publish a report next week detailing how the error was made and when it became apparent the platforms would have to be altered.

The revelations sparked a furor in France with politicians from all sides denouncing the error. Environment and Energy Minister Ségolène Royal said she wanted clarity on how "such a stupid decision had been made."

"Such implausible errors simply go to show there are people in Parisian offices who are too far removed from the regional reality," Ms. Royal said in the courtyard of the Élysée Palace after the weekly government cabinet meeting.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front said the episode is "an inexcusable waste of public money."

The RFF said the costs of altering the platforms would be covered by the €4 billion annual budget dedicated to maintenance, modernization and development.

Speaking on French radio Europe 1, the president of the RFF, Jacques Rappoport, defended the railroad operator's record. In the past 10 years, traffic on regional railways has increased by between 40% and 50% while some of the platforms are up to 150 years old.

"It's clear that the trains we had in the 19th century aren't the same ones we have today," Mr. Rappoport said. Still, he acknowledged there is a problem with France's system because it separates the track operator from the train operator.

A law being prepared by the government should allow SNCF and RFF to work more closely, government spokesman Stéphane le Foll said after the weekly cabinet meeting. --WSJ