'No problem' with railway changes

FOUR million rail commuters woke up to a revolution at their local stations this morning with 85% of the timetables across France changing - nearly 12,000 journeys out of the daily 15,000.

With the first changes being made yesterday, SNCF was ready to meet the "big bang" test of its first rush-hour with 2,000 extra staff to deal with complaints, questions and comments on the

way the new system is running.

The wide-scale changes are being introduced to allow for vital repairs and upgrades to 30,000km of track, the arrival of new train services such as the Rhin-Rhône TGV link from

Lyon-Dijon-Mulhouse-Strasbourg and SNCF's move to introduce a more regular timetabling for departures.

Rail user associations and local councillors criticised the changes as "too much, too quickly" but the move seemed to go off with only minor problems early this morning. SNCF president

Guillaume Pepy said: "It's like a play where everyone involved knows their lines but it has never been performed in front of the public before - and today were are facing a public of more

than four million people."

Alain Garde, the man overseeing the changes for the SNCF, said: "We have not seen any problems with the new timetables. Everything's in place."

However, in Angoulême, around 80 protesters delayed the departure of the Bordeaux-Paris TGV by 20 minutes as they protested the dropping of three TGVs stopping at the station.

The new Rhin-Rhône TGV link, which also started yesterday, is the first service that does not pass Paris. It opens up links from the north to the south and travellers from Strasbourg to Lyon

will see their voyage cut from 4hr45 to 3.35.

It comes as the national rail company faces its first real competition with the first private operator opening up a service. With 30-year-old Badr Kaouri at the controls, Thello's first

overnight train set off from Paris Gare de Lyon to Venice.

Cheapest fares on the service, a joint venture by Italian rail company Trenitalia and Veolia Transdev, were €35 one-way in a six-couchette compartment.

Elsewhere, the first train on the new Moscow-Berlin-Paris service set off from Moscow this morning for a 3,177km journey before reaching Paris at 20.31 tomorrow.