Presently, people travelling internationally through Eurostar crossing UK, had to buy Eurostar tickets on their website and UK domestic tickets on a different website. Now, thanks to Fujitsu, Eurostar tickets for international and domestic journeys can be bought on the Eurostar’s website and also on seven train operator’s systems in the UK.

So, in essence, travellers plying from France, Italy or any other European destination can buy all their tickets together as one fare on Eurostar.com.

The different rail operator’s networks that are integrated are Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Trains, First Capital Connect, Hull Trains, London Midland, National Express East Coast and Virgin Trains.

Before this year ends, Fujitsu plans on extending the integration to several smaller UK cities with bigger cities like London and have through-fares to the rest of Europe.

Jamel Chandoul, head of distribution and commercial systems, Eurostar said: “This is one of a number of key customer service initiatives designed to make the whole travelling experience for passengers as easy as possible. With this new ticketing system many travellers can now book their entire journey from their local mainline station to Continental Europe through one joined-up service – making their Eurostar experience even better.”

This linkage is a welcome change for many of those travelling into UK through Eurostar from other European states. They are guaranteed on connections between different train networks and need not face any ambiguity in train travel.

via Press Release

Geograph is a project aimed at covering the entire British Isles in digital images. It plans on geotagging the UK and Ireland with digital photographs taken and contributed by travellers and amateur photographers. The project has started accepting images and a whopping response greeted it with thousands of pictures.

What geotagging does is marry the art of photography with the precise science of digital cartography. In practical terms, all this really means is stamping digital images with the same grid references used by mapmakers, making them easy for others to locate on the internet.

This project will ensure that every centimeter of UK and Ireland are captured on images and placed on the map. It means that every street, traffic lights, museums, castles and minute details are available for viewing.

So, geograph is reaching out to those with high resolution cameras to take pictures of places in the UK and Ireland and upload them in the appropriate grid on the website.

So, when the project is complete, visitors can zoom in on the place of interest and view the pictures instead of just knowing the location and other non-imagery details. Neat idea!

About Geograph: The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and you can be part of it.

via Guardian

A new travel website combining the strengths of YouTube and Facebook has been launched. Rtravel.com is a UK based website which is not affiliated with any travel agency or related organisations.

The concept is not original but simple. Travellers around the world who capture photos and travel videos and are encouraged to upload them on this website. Other members would be able to view the uploaded media and comment on the same; and thereby communicate, thus making friends. Blogging feature is available as well.

Videos are categorised logically as sightseeing places, wildlife, people and crazy stuff among others. If helps onlookers find the kind of video they are looking for.

A good thing about Rtravel is the preference for amateur videos over professional ones. This move would definitely encourage more travellers to shoot and upload their experiences.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a believer that technology (particularly where travel and Web 2.0 meet) should serve us and not the over way around. And so when it comes to travel technology it too should improve our lives and not distract us by being yet another thing needing set-up, with yet more buttons to press and something else that needs updating. And so enters Facebook.

Thankfully there is a slew of travel related apps for Facebook. Most travel related Facebook apps are just for fun, some are just for show and some (can you believe it?) are useful. Most travel apps on Facebook are based around the simple concept of logging your travels to countries and cities where you have lived, traveled to or want to visit. Here are 10 of the best travel applications for your Facebook profile:

UK Place Finder is a piece of software written for satellite navigation systems and has indexed several places of interests for people to search on the fly. There are around 100 categories of places to choose from like petrol stations, super markets, golf clubs and so on.

Thousands of places in and around UK are preloaded with their addresses mapped with their coordinates. Suppose you are driving in an unfamiliar neighbourhood and would like to find an Italian restaurant, just key in the name of a popular Italian joint and the sat-nav system should be able to locate it for you in matter of seconds, and guide you from your present location to the restaurant.

Included in UK PlaceFinder are all the major brands you would expect for Supermarkets, Hotels, Restaurants, Sports Venues, Petrol Stations, Motorway Services, Cafes, Cinemas, Attractions, High Street stores, Department Stores, Clothes Shops, DIY shops, Pubs and Clubs, Gyms and other large retailers. Added to this are also the more hard to find locations such as Car Parks, Congestion Zones, London Underground Stations, Blue Flag Beaches, Hairdressers, Builder and Plumbing Merchants, Camera Shops, National Trust Sites, Industrial Estates, Shopping Centres and Retail Parks.

UK Place Finder software is available for download or on a CD for a price of £13. The price is reasonable for the service it offers and moreover it’s one time expenditure.

via Press Release