July 15, 2002	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1423

PARIS, July 14: After introducing the world’s fastest aeroplane, the Concorde, and the speediest train, the TGV, the French thought they had come up with a worthy successor, the TRR, or the “the world’s fastest sidewalk.” That is, until a few days ago, when authorities decided to put an end — at least temporarily — to the 4.5 million Euro experiment.

The structure, located at the Montparnasse-Bienvenue subway station, is in fact more of a people-mover that should theoretically allow 110,000 commuters daily to save 90 seconds as they change subway lines at the Montparnasse station. But at 11 km per hour, the there have been injuries during the TRR’s first week of operation, and the company that built it decided to shut down the operation while it attempts come up with a way to make the sidewalk safer.

Hubert de Chefdebien, a spokesman for CNIM which constructed the sidewalk, admitted that “the small number of people who weren’t aware (that) they were taking a high-speed sidewalk ended up losing their equilibrium as the sidewalk accelerated at the start of the ride and as it decelerated when it approached its destination.”