Last week Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) took possession of their new 4,000-guest cruise ship during an on board signing ceremony at which ownership was transferred from the (astonishingly efficient) Meyer Werft shipyard (I’m a big fan) to NCL and their respective flags were changed. Norwegian Bliss is...
Private railway carriages are not new, but these days the ability to rent one and attach it to a train is rare outside the USA, where they are known as “Private Varnishes”*. Now, Golden Eagle Luxury Trains has introduced the Romanov Suite to its (already) private Golden...
A bedding manufacturer is planning a commuter bus fitted with sleeping pods. Remember Harry Potter’s Night Bus? Well this could be a little less…wild! The idea is to give bleary-eyed Brits some shut-eye on their ride home at the end of a long day. The “snoozliner” is...
Engineers can be SO cool! This is a fascinating video of a company called ALE*, who specialised in moving/lifting/sliding heavy stuff, swapping out a 7.5 ton crankshaft from an engine on the cruise liner MS Zaandam. This is small-scale, bread & butter stuff (they did two cruise...
A new, specially designed, luxury tourist train was launched yesterday in Japan. The Royal Express will operate from Yokohama station in Yokohama and Itokyu Shimoda station in Shimoda City at the southern tip of the Izu Peninsula with its full of hot springs and picturesque coastlines. Around...
There are plans to turn the Mediterranean island of Menorca into an eco-electric hub, and they don't just stop at renting electric cars to tourists.
Foulridge Tunnel, on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, is to become the longest canal tunnel in the UK to open to canoes. The mile-long, the 200 year old tunnel, looked after by the Canal & River Trust, is regularly used by canal boats, but from Saturday 03...
This weekend, Virgin Trains set up a photo-opportunity event for rail enthusiasts – four generations of trains travelling side by side on the East Coast Line. Of course, it was also a marketing opportunity to show off Virgin Trains’ new Azuma, alongside two present-day trains, and the...
This looks like an interesting project, if it ever gets off the ground – see what I did there? This is a new concept ducted-fan vertical take-off (VTOL) aircraft that could be commonplace if it works as billed. The six-seat XTI TriFan 600, say the designers, “will...
Last May, London Gatwick Airport opened its new ‘Pier 1’ at the South Terminal, replacing the old Pier 1 originally opened by the Queen in 1958. The new pier, costing £186 million, has 5 efficient dual-boarding gates with state-of-the-art passenger gate rooms and a premium lounge with...
The massive 57-kilometre Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) in the Swiss Alps is finally opening this weekend after 17 years of construction. From Sunday 11 December, train passengers will be able to speed between northern & southern Switzerland in 17 minutes, cutting the overall cross-border journey time from...
One of the key travel trends identified in this year’s World Travel Market – Global Trends Report, compiled by Euromonitor International is the return of supersonic air travel. Thirteen years after the demise of Concorde, a number of initiatives are underway to re-open the supersonic air travel...
This is pretty impressive. It’s the world’s largest ship elevator built onto the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River at Yichang City, Hubei Province, central China. It opened earlier this month (18 Sep) and it enables small passenger & cargo ships up to 3,000 DWT(deadweight ton)...
Deutsche Bahn’s new long-distance train, was presented to the public yesterday at Berlin Central Station. The new ICE 4 train, which according to Dr. Rüdiger Grube, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Deutsche Bahn, “ushers in a new era” comes with numerous technical innovations and...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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