Crouching Tiger, Roaring Dragon: - Travel News Digest

26 TrANsporT November 2011 · TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST
Early bird offerings
at P&O Cruises and
Cunard
The Carnival UK-owned
Peninsular & Oriental Steam
Navigation Cruises will offer
free domestic flights, coach
travel or valet car parking along
with 20% discounts in a threemonth
push on early bookings
This year Indian Railways seems
to have become particular about
discipline. About 2,600 Railway
officials have faced departmental
action during the first five
months of this year for alleged
irregularities in discharging
their work.
The department has carried
out 10,389 preventive checks
between January and May this
With the introduction of the
Changi Experience Agents
(CEA) initiative, service at
Changi Airport Singapore is
set to be further enhanced. Customer
service officers are now
deployed to help visitors and
for 2012-13.
Sister line Cunard is offering
a similar incentive, with free
flights to join its ship Queen
Elizabeth in the Mediterranean
and free parking at 13 UK
airports for fly-cruises.
Rail employees in India face the music
year and found that 87 gazetted
and 2,561 non-gazetted officers
CEA ensures better service at Changi
The Hertz Corporation has
launched a new customer loyalty
programme, Gold Plus Rewards.
Gold Plus Rewards provides
customers with a wide range of
flexible reward options including
points that never expire,
‘AnyDay’ reward options that
have no blackout periods, easy
online redemption on hertz.com,
international point accrual, and
a wide variety of car rewards
passengers. Locating missing
luggage, facilitating passengers
with check-in needs and assisting
transit or transfer passengers
with their onward connections
also form part of the
CEAs’ duties.
‘Podcar takeover’ at Heathrow
Ultra Personal rapid transits
(PRT), also called podcars,
are currently jetting passengers
around Heathrow airport
without any supervision at a 25
mph clip. Breakdowns are also
extremely rare and the system
has a 95% reliability rate. After
diesel buses were taken off at
that time, and these popular
Ultra PRTs have been transporting
people with their four-seat
configurations since then.
Hertz launches new loyalty programme
including cars from Hertz’s new
Adrenaline Collection.
Carnival and
Fincantieri to
build new ships
Carnival Corporation said
that it has reached an agreement
with Italian shipbuilder
Fincantieri for the construction
of three new cruise ships
– one 132,500-tonne vessel for
its Costa Cruises brand and
two 125,000-tonne ships for
its AIDA Cruises brand. The
ships will be the largest ever
constructed for these two
cruise lines. A contract has
been signed for the construction
of a 3,700-passenger ship
for Costa that is scheduled for
delivery in October 2014.
were allegedly involved in various
illegal practices.
The Vigilance Wing of the
Railways had also made recovery
of over `13 crore from the preventive
checks carried out in different
railways zones.”We carried
out these checks to ensure that
the railways employees do not
indulge in corrupt practices.
The drive will be intensified
in future,” a Railway Ministry
official said.
Over the Rhine
to perform again
on train
Cincinnati-based Over the
Rhine will do three private concerts
and two public concerts on
the Roots on the Rails September
excursion in northern New
Mexico and southern Colorado.
This will be their third such trip.
Last year they were aboard a
train between Los Angeles and
Albuquerque, via the Grand
Canyon, that stopped for a
series of off-train concerts.
The Maharajas’ Express, India’s
most luxurious train, is introducing
a new 8-day and 7-night
journey this October.The Royal
Sojourn departing New Delhi will
include destinations previously
inaccessible by a luxury train.
New highlights will include the
US confirms rail
spending in states
In spite of the economic crisis,
US transportation secretary
Ray LaHood has announced that
California, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan
and Missouri will receive
US $336.2 million to purchase
next-generation trains. “This
announcement is all about jobs,”
explained LaHood.
California and Illinois reached
cooperative agreements with
the Federal Railroad Administration
to begin a multi-state
procurement of equipment for
passenger rail corridors in California,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Michigan, Missouri, Oregon and
Eurostar ski
services ticket
sale opens
The high speed passenger
service, Eurostar linking the
UK and mainland Europe,
has opened ticket sales for its
direct ski services. Ski services
will be from St Pancras
International and Ashford
International to the
heart of the French Alps. The
direct seasonal ski train to
the Alps will run from Saturday,
December 17 (day services)
and Friday, December 23
(night services) until Saturday
April 14, 2012.
The Royal Sojourn launches
historical city of Kota, with visits
to the 13th century Garh Palace, a
boat cruise on the Chambal river,
breeding ground of the Gharial
(crocodiles) and a Royal dinner
at the Umed Bhawan Palace, with
its stunning blend of Rajput and
Victorian architecture.
Washington State.
Building a nationwide rail
network is critical to America’s
long-term economic success.
“More people are choosing
to take the train and this
year Amtrak is projected to set
an all-time record by topping
30 million annual riders,” said
federal railroad administrator
Joseph Szabo.
Trains will be designed to
travel more than 110 mph along
intercity passenger corridors,
and meet standards developed
by the state-led Next Generation
Equipment Committee.
24x7 car hire in UK
From September 2011 onwards
over 60 Europcar locations
across the UK will remain open
seven days a week, allowing users
to pick-up and return hire vehicles
on the day that suits them.
The new opening times included
22 airports and 38 city centre
branches, as well as 24-hour
opening at six major airports. The
new policy will be rolled out in
response to customer demand.
Cruising on World
War II ship
The S.S. Lane Victory, 455-foot
WWII cargo ship will go to sea
on day cruises. The ship’s WWIIthemed
‘Victory at Sea’ cruise
includes a continental breakfast,
a large catered buffet lunch, live
1940s’ music and a mock attack
by an aircraft painted to look like
World War II era planes. Visitors
will also be invited to help hunt
down a “Nazi spy” hiding somewhere
in the ship.