Australia avoids French mistakes. French Join the List of Costly Engineering Errors

Australia has avoided costly errors in the construction of rail infrastructure by not upgrading their rolling stock or lines for about 40 years, it is estimated that they have saved billions of dollars.
They have one problem, not many people catch trains anymore because they're so old, but hey, they save on cleaning etc, say the federal government.

The authorities have had the bright idea to build roads instead, bugger upgrading railways, they believe they are on a winner with this one, people won't use trains because they're so bad so they are forcing people to drive. Building roads is the err...err..the future for Australia?

It seems as if we have had a surge in brain drain, the location of this brain drain seems to be located between two sets of ears at the very top of the Coalition(Abbott and Hockey).

French Join the List of Engineering Errors

PARIS May 21, 2014 (AP)

By LORI HINNANT Associated Press

They measured the new trains, they checked against the latest specs on the book. But engineers at the French railway network forgot to go and measure the actual distance between tracks and platforms — a mistake that will cost 50 million euros ($68 million) to fix.

Nearly 1,300 stations are just a few centimeters (inches) too narrow for the 341 new trains that were to be introduced between now and 2016. The problem with older stations was first reported in the French weekly Le Canard Enchaine and confirmed Wednesday by French railway and government officials.