Here are a couple of news stories abour French rail travel that may be of
interest

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels, - mind the spamtrap)

1): All baggage on long-distance trains must now be labelled

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_...&story_id=9084
PARIS, June 30 (AFP) - Travellers aboard French high-speed and long-distance
train services were being ordered as of Thursday to label all their luggage
as part of bolstered security precautions, the state rail company SNCF said.

They will be able again to use baggage space usually available at the end of
each rail car. Those spaces were taken out of use as a security measure
following train bomb attacks in Madrid last March.

The decision was taken by the French interior ministry, which said that as
an extra safety precaution all luggage must henceforth be labelled,
including luggage kept on seats alongside passengers, said Mireille
Faugères, head of the agency Voyages France Europe.

© AFP

2): Computer problems

By Audrey Jacquet in Paris, 17 July 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe...p?story=541849

French railways were still in confusion yesterday after a computer failure
brought all station ticket offices in the country to a standstill on
Thursday.

Ticket offices in the main stations were partly restored yesterday morning
but passengers were still unable to buy tickets over the counter at hundreds
of other stations throughout France.

Long queues developed in front of automatic ticket machines and railway
staff were also selling tickets on trains and on platforms. The SNCF
computer booking system broke down at 9.20am on Thursday, blocking all
station sales of tickets for high-speed TGV, express and regional trains in
the middle of a busy holiday week.

The break-down was attributed to a failure in transmission of data from the
central computer server a day after SNCF updated its computerised ticket
selling system. The network was restarted for almost an hour that afternoon
but quickly shut down again.

A million passengers were expected at stations yesterday at the end of a
week including the 14 July national holiday. The failure did not disrupt
rail services. Railway staff reported that most passengers had been patient,
although some may have taken advantage of the confusion to travel free.

SNIP rest of story