One-track plan for French rail

Little-used rail lines could be made single-track in proposals put to local authorities by SNCF in a bid to cut running costs.

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Moving to a single line would reduce maintenance while having one train doing shuttle runs would need no signals.

This is one of about 50 measures put to councillors that include using bitumen-gravel instead of ballast for the track base.

It comes after parliament rejected plans to close 9,000km of small lines, most in a bad state, which make up 2% of traffic but a third of the track.