France may abandon plans for a major extension of its high-speed train network, one of the most visible if costly symbols of its engineering prowess, as the new left-wing government strives to shrink its huge debt, reports Reuters.
Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac broke the news in a public TV interview on Wednesday, saying it seemed extravagant to spend so much in hard times on 14 new TGV train lines former president Nicolas Sarkozy promised before he lost power in May.
"It's fair to ask whether we should extend this or that TGV line for marginal time gains," Cahuzac, seizing on criticism of the train investments by state auditors, told France 2 television.
The minister, who has to find a way to deliver on Socialist President Francois Hollande's pledge to balance France's books, said it would be better to focus investment on maintaining the less glamorous secondary train network many people depend on.
Hollande has vowed to spare French people wage and pension cuts of the kind being imposed in countries such as Greece and Ireland in return for international financial bailouts, saying such austerity risks turning economic stagnation into recession.
Read more of this report from Reuters.