Its official, a crossrail will be built linking East and West London. The biggest beneficiary, Heathrow airport, which is facing plenty of congestion problems.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave the green signal earlier this month to the humongous £16b project. This project is set to be completed by 2017. The total length of this rail is 73 miles with 38 stops and new stations are set to be built at Canary Wharf, Farringdon and Bond Street.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone described the decision as “the key to the next 20 years of economic development of London”.

With the completion of the crossrail project, commuters can reach Heathrow from Canary Wharf in 43 minutes and the City in 25 minutes. With the rail line running through Berkshire to Essex, residents in Maidenhead, Slough, Romford and Woolwich would have direct access to Heathrow. Will the Eurostar don the crossrail to further reduce travel times?

With the improvement of approach times to Heathrow, there is bound to be some repercussions. London City Airport is likely to be hit the worst. Further improvements to this airport would be obstructed with no room for expansion. Currently it services business travellers who ply by CityJet and VLM. At least the woes of those who spend hours in traffic would be relived in the next decade.

TrainTracker, has received the prestigious Innovation of the Year award at the Transportation Innovations event. It is an automated telephone enquiry system which provides real time updates to UK rail travellers. The automated system is built on speech recognition system and helps thousands of UK rail travellers every day.

TrainTracker was developed for National Rail Enquiries. It currently handles 15,000 calls per day and 56,000 calls during rail disruptions. It is one of the most sought after service in the UK.

TrainTracker™ combines real-time and scheduled information, along with up-to-the-minute station information and bulletins, to ensure that travellers can access the most accurate information available. The enhanced journey planning capability means callers can now plan travel between over 3,000 locations and are offered additional interchange information for metro, ferry, tram, walking and bus transfers.

The absence of the human element and the ability to handle huge number of simultaneous calls has made TT as one of the formidable services offered in the UK. Many other service regions can take a cue from TT and develop one to increase customer satisfaction. One place that needs this system is Heathrow.

via CCW

Eurostar is actively cutting travel times in a matter of days. A fortnight ago, the European rail sprinter had reached London from Paris in 2 hours and 3 minutes. Today, it has broken its own record by setting the fastest time at 1 hour and 43 minutes; scraping off a phenomenal 20 minutes. The London-Paris stretch is around 232 miles and the Eurostar has set an outstanding average speed of 186 mph.

Eurostar will start servicing passengers in Europe starting November. It not only connects Paris to London but also provides routes to Belgium and France.

The line from London to the coast is opening 13 years after the Channel Tunnel, taking Eurostar off busy commuter lines through Kent.

The new terminus will allow easier through connections to most other London mainline stations, particularly Kings Cross and Euston.

The faster the Eurostar gets, airlines get hit more. There is an insurgency of air travel and faster travel times by other alternatives could steal passengers off flight lines. Lengthy security checks at airports have not helped airliners either. It also matters if trains can provide a similar frequency as the flights to take the fight to the market.

via BBC

The arrival of Aer Lingus has prompted the authorities to look for efficient ways of approach means to Belfast International airport. The introduction is expected to spark an exponential increase in passengers using the airport.

Kilbride Group, a company from England has bagged the contract to reuse the existing rail and reinstate the Knockmore railway line. The English company is also involved in construction of railway lines in England and Scotland. It is expected to re-activate the Lisburn and Antrim line and extend it up to Aldergrove.

It is heartening to see measures drawn up to provide amicable transportation solution to passengers before Aer Lingus sets its foot on Belfast. This could be a pro-active action to reduce the travel time and more importantly tackle congestion on roads. This planned train service to the airport will also be connected to the proposed Maze stadium.

The fastest train in Europe, Eurostar, has set a new record on reaching London from Paris at record speed. It took exactly 2 hours, 3 minutes and 39 seconds with VIPs and journalists travelling on it.This new service which is due to be launched on 14th of November will reduce travelling time by 20 minutes.

The route between Paris and London is estimated at 68 miles. This track passes over river Medway and through tunnels in London. A constant speed of 202mph was recorded in London while British rails provided a sound 195mph. The fastest train in Britain had travelled at 186mph.

Richard Brown, CEO of Eurostar aims at enticing air travellers by posting competitive prices. He hopes to see 10m people travel by Eurostar by 2010.

"Today marks Britain's entry into the European high-speed rail club."

He said journey times to Paris, even for people travelling from Yorkshire, would be broadly the same as for those flying due to lengthier check-in times at airports.

"It's as quick and more frequent... and we will be matching airline prices."

Eurostar tickets from London to Paris start from £59 return.

via BBC