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Virgin Trains announces extra service London-Glasgow

Virgin Trains on Dec 17 announced the times of the additional trains on the London to Glasgow via Preston route over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, which will help passengers affected by the collapse of Scotland’s airline Flyglobespan. The extra trains had been arranged to help passengers affected by the planned strike action on British Airways, but will continue to operate following the High Court ruling that the strike cannot go ahead.

The extra trains will supplement the already advertised service of 26 trains daily in both directions between Euston and Glasgow.

Chris Gibb, Virgin Trains’ Chief Operating Officer said: “Christmas and New Year is an extremely busy time for us, but I am confident that with the additional trains being arranged alongside our scheduled services, most of which have 439 seats, we will be able to carry all our regular customers together with those affected by the planned BA strike and those whose travel plans have been disrupted by the collapse of Flyglobespan.”

Denver Ski Train operation threatened by Amtrak demands

New winter Ski Train service between Denver and Winter Park CO was scheduled to start Dec 27 with Amtrak providing operating crews for Iowa Pacific Holdings, and more than 13,000 reservations have reportedly been made. But Amtrak and Iowa Pacific do not yet have a signed agreement. Amtrak has told Pacific Holdings that the latter needs $200 million insurance coverage to cover acts of terrorism, insurance that is too expensive for Pacific Holdings.

Pacific Holdings is filing suit against Amtrak to require the latter to operate the service. The service, which has run for 69 years, would operate on Union Pacific tracks.

Eurostar has reported that the procedures that were put in place to prioritise passengers have worked well and in the course of today the backlog of passengers from the weekend has been cleared. Eurostar will continue to operate a restricted service on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 December. Trains will be running throughout the day. More information is available on www.eurostar.com. Customers with tickets for travel between Saturday 19 and Thursday 24 December can come to the terminal on either Wednesday or Thursday and we will do our best to allocate a seat on the next available train.

Eurostar service update for Dec 22

Eurostar will be resuming a restricted service from Tuesday 22 December. Trains will depart from 07.30 to 18.00 (GMT).

We continue to strongly advise customers whose journeys are not essential not to travel and to change their tickets for travel on a later date or have their tickets refunded.

Only customers who hold a ticket that was originally for travel on Saturday 19 or Sunday 20 December will be eligible for travel on Tuesday 22 December.

Customers holding tickets for Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 December will be eligible for travel on Wednesday 23 December. Customers holding tickets for Wednesday 23 or Thursday 24 December will be eligible for travel on Thursday 24 December.

Customers are advised not to attempt to travel independently via the channel ports or the Channel Tunnel unless they have confirmed bookings.

Eurostar begins independent review of problems

The Board of Eurostar announced today that it has commissioned an independent 
review into the problems it has experienced over recent days. The review will be led 
by Christopher Garnett,  former Chief Executive of GNER and formerly Commercial 
Director of Eurotunnel, in conjunction with Monsieur Claude Gressier who is 
Inspecteur General des Ponts et Chaussees. The review will begin at once. 

After weather-related power problems continued on the Eurostar service, 
the operator announced that service would be cancelled indefinitely until
the problem was resolved. Read original report here, which includes a trip 
report by a NY Times reporter.

See Eurostar announcement update

Amtrak Crescent stuck in snowstorm

The northbound Crescent, train 20, on Dec 19 became immobilized just outside 
Alexandria VA. Passengers said they had been stuck on the train for a long time
and complained of lack of information about their situation. The power in the
train had gone out after a time and the onboard temperature was falling. They
said the Amtrak crew had fed them a meager dinner of rice. 

Much of the East Coast had been hit by a very heavy snowstorm that day,
which paralyzed airports and highways as well. See a video report on the
Crescent situation at this link.

Eurostar suffers major breakdowns due to weather

Five Eurostar trains broke down Friday evening, Dec 18, stranding about 
2000 passengers in the Channel Tunnel. The highly disruptive and embarassing 
to Eurostar breakdown was blamed on the contrast in temperature between
the Continental side of the line, where extreme low temperatures were recorded,
and the higher temperatures in the tunnel. Read full story here.

Eurostar trains image is being upgraded

Eurostar announced in August that Italian designer Pininfarina will be re-designing 
the interiors of its trains. Now on Dec 17 came the announcement that SomeOne, 
a London-based creative design agency, has been tapped to provide a "new visual 
identity across all its traveller touch-points".   Eurostar said the visual identity being 
developed by SomeOne will tie in with PininFarina's new interior designs. 

Italy now tops all Eurail Pass single-country sales

More Eurail single-country Passes are being sold for Italian travel than for any other 
European nation. In addition, Italy has become the number-two country for overall 
Eurail Pass travel, according to a Dec 17 announcement from Eurail Group. 

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train hitting the Midwest

The Holiday Train is a freight train covered in more than 200,000 bright lights. At 
140 stops across Canada and United States, Canadian Pacific provides a box car 
stage, a line up of great musical talent and a corporate contribution to the local 
food pantries and food shelves. Food pantries and food shelves provide collection 
bins for non-perishable food. Communities, in turn, donate food and funds, all of 
which stays in the community. The Holiday Train has raised $4 million and 2 million 
pounds of food. Full schedules and background information are available at 
www.cpr.ca by clicking on the Holiday Train. For the train schedule for upcoming 
days in the Midwest, see this link.

California high-speed train project is set back by need for new environmental
report
See this story at SFGate here.

Eurostar begins trip to Climate Change Conference 

Eurostar, the high-speed provider of carbon neutral journeys between the UK and 
the continent, will on Friday 4 December take environmental campaigners, delegates 
and environmental journalists to Brussels to meet the UIC ‘Climate Express’ train to 
the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen (COP 15). 
The journey will begin at London St Pancras International, where there will be an 
official send off with dancers from India and a brass quintet from the Royal College 
of Music. 

The group will then travel on to Brussels where they will meet up with around 400 
fellow travellers from across Europe, to continue their journey on the Climate 
Express the morning of Saturday 5 December... 
                                             * * * 
  Since Eurostar returned to full service in February 2009, punctuality levels have 
remained high with 95% of trains arriving on time. 

  Eurostar provides high-speed rail journeys between St Pancras International, 
Ebbsfleet International, Ashford International, Paris, Brussels, Lille, Calais, 
Disneyland Resort Paris, Avignon and the French Alps. 

  Eurostar connects with domestic services in the UK and provides onward 
connections to destinations across mainland Europe. Travellers can buy connecting 
fares to the Continent from more than 200 stations with return fares from £63, 
including Brighton from £71 and Edinburgh from £92. 

  Under its Tread Lightly environmental plan, Eurostar has set a target of reducing 
its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 35% per traveller journey by 2012. Because 
emissions cannot yet be eliminated, Eurostar is also the world’s first train operator 
to make all journeys carbon neutral, at no extra cost to travellers. 

  Eurostar and Friends of the Earth are working together in the UK on Eurostar’s 
Tread Lightly initiative and Friends of the Earth’s climate campaign. To find out more 
about Friends of the Earth visit www.friendsoftheearth.co.uk. 

  Eurostar is a founder member of Railteam, a partnership between Europe’s leading 
high-speed train operators that is developing simpler ways to book and travel on the 
fast-expanding, European high-speed rail network. 

  Eurostar is an entirely separate business from Eurotunnel. Eurostar operates 
high-speed passenger trains, whilst Eurotunnel operates vehicle shuttle services and 
the Channel Tunnel itself. Eurostar is Eurotunnel’s biggest customer. 
(Source: Eurostar) 

House Democrats are working quickly on a jobs creation bill, hoping to have it ready for President Obama's signature in January, reports the L.A. Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-jobs27-2009nov27,0,3049289.story There is disappointment that the earlier stimulus package did not result in the creation of enough jobs, and the nation's unemployment rate has risen to 10.2%. 

There is talk of focussing heavily on "shovel-ready" projects to fund, including much infrastructure work. Rail advocates are asking whether badly-needed rail projects will be included in the legislation. An example of that sentiment comes from a Web diary commenter: "Government-created jobs to build rail lines might increase demand for concrete-and-steel ties made in the Midwest, steel rails made in America, earth-moving equipment to grade and clear new road beds, domestically produced signal devices, and... and... real jobs? By golly, somebody might even set up a factory to reclaim, rebuild and refurbish passenger cars that have been rusting on sidings or resting in switchyards for 60 years so that... wait for it... Amtrak might have more than 632 cars (Truth!) to use. Good heavens! If that happens, Amtrak might be able to increase its carrying contribution of passengers, move them more efficiently than by single-passenger autos, move America toward a more efficient mix of transport that reduces our dependence on foreign oil."  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/27/808513/-Democrats-Working-on-a-Multibillion-dollar-Jobs-Package! 

Senator Dianne Feinstein on Meet the Press Nov 22 said: "An interest that I have had for a long time is in high-speed rail, and there are three regional high-speed rail systems being planned in the United States.I'd like to see an infrastructure bank developed with some of the remaining TARP money that could lend to communities to move those plans forward quicker so that -- because transportation has a billion -- it has 40,000 jobs for a billion dollars spent, and so it's a good investment of funds right now. We have to be concerned with jobs." 

According to The Hill, "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said that passage of a $500 billion, six-year transportation reauthorization bill, funding highway and transit construction projects, could serve as a jobs bill, but the White House and Senate Democrats have only supported extensions of the current transportation bill." 

Rail advocates will continue to push for funding for high-speed rail and Amtrak upgrading and expansion.