Destination News - Rail, Road.

New York (AirGuide - Destination, Rail, Road News) Jul 19, 2009

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced that the Federal Railroad Administration has received 278 pre-applications for grant funding totaling USD 102 billion. The money will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail competitive grant program. OThe response has been tremendous and shows that the country is ready for high-speed rail,O LaHood said. OItOs time to look beyond our highways and invest in public transportation services like rail, which will enhance regional mobility and reduce our carbon footprint.O Jul 17, 2009

iGoogle Southern

A new iGoogle Southern Ogadget' is now available for passengers to download and store on their iGoogle home page. The gadget allows passengers to book train tickets through Southern's new online booking system. Using the gadget, train tickets can now be bought to and from any national rail station using Southern's new online system and can be collected from National Ticket on Departure (TOD) enabled ticket machines at stations. Southern has also developed a Vista gadget that will sit on the vista desktop making access to the online journey planner ever quicker. The online booking system helps passengers make informed decisions about which tickets to buy, allowing them to purchase the best value tickets based on their journey preferences. Passengers can create their own journey plan using a Omixing desk' on the system which provides a full list of journey and fare options available. Jul 17, 2009

Eurostar

Eurostar unveiled sales results for the first six months of 2009. Despite the recession, Eurostar reported a 4 percent rise in leisure sales against the same period in 2008, following a surge in inbound travel to the U.K. and a drive to encourage U.K. travelers to take full advantage of the increased availability of the lead-in GBP59 (USD 97) return fare. According to Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, ODespite market conditions, we still have good reason to be optimistic. We are benefiting from the strong euro and seeing substantial increases in travelers from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, which is also helping the U.K. economy. In addition, there is growing evidence of travelers switching from plane to high-speed train for longer, connecting journeys.O Jul 16, 2009

American Travel Writers

Two of Rocky MountaineerOs rail journeys have been selected by the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) as the most exciting and scenic train experiences in the world. SATW, the worldOs largest organization of professional travel journalists and photographers with members in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia, recently conducted a poll on the OTop 10O train rides. CanadaOs Rocky Mountaineer took the number one spot, with the Whistler Mountaineer coming in at number eight. OHaving both of our trains selected in the OTop 10O is an amazing acknowledgement and gives us further indication that we are providing our guests with premier travel experiences,O said Randy Powell, president of Rocky Mountaineer. Jul 14, 2009

Heathrow and Gatwick Express

Heathrow and Gatwick Express have launched the first ever environmentally friendly door-to-door service to and from the airport with Carbon Voyage. Travellers can book a pick up from either their home or office in a Carbon Voyage car and travel to Paddington or Victoria Stations where they will board the express train service to Heathrow or Gatwick Airports. Jul 13, 2009

ZZ AirGuide 090720

Editorial eMail: edit@AirGuideOnline.com For Air Transport & Travel Business Experts contact our Director of Content Aram Gesar eMail: bizintel@AirGuideOnline.com For Advertising and Marketing: advert@AirGuideOnline.com For Custom Content: content@AirGuideOnline.com ISSN 1544-3760 - Copyright [c] 2009 AirGuide / Pyramid Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates