Have you have ever wondered what’s the perfect situation to explain the proverb; ‘better safe than sorry’? If yes, Then you are at the right place my friend. Let’s go to France where SNCF, a leading train operator, is wondering why they didn’t play it safe? The train operator had ordered 2,000 new trains, which cost around $20.5 billion and have now realized, after the trains have been delivered, that the trains are kind of wide for the regional platforms (time to panic, most definitely!).
Speculations over the cost that this blunder is incurring to the train operator exceed $68.4 million and it is rising. Although construction work is already underway to reconfigure the train platforms to cater for the width of new trains, according to officials, there are still about 1,000 platforms, which need to be adjusted to the dimensions of new trains.
We are more interested, however, in how SNCF takes mitigatory measures and how will the cost be distributed among the train operator and French Railway Authorities.