Chiltern Railways services will move into public ownership tomorrow – Sunday 20 September 2026. Connecting London Marylebone with communities across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands, Chiltern Railways will become the sixth operator whose services transfer into public ownership as part of the government’s drive to...
MSC World Asia, built at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, is MSC’s third LNG-powered World Class vessel. Though she uses Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) as her primary fuel, she is also capable of running on bio and synthetic renewable LNG fuels, and is has shore...
Rail passengers are set to enjoy faster and more frequent services when a new fleet of battery-electric trains begin operating on TransPennine Express* routes. Great British Railways (GBR), the UK Government’s new body that runs most of Britain’s rail network, has signed a £1 billion contract with...
That’s a bit of a shock! It’s a bit like hearing the ravens are quitting the Tower of London. Yesterday, the National Motor Museum Trust issued a statement announcing that it has begun the process of identifying a new home for the National Motor Museum as its...
The Silver Raven, which started operating the official 40-minute ‘Tower of London River Tours’ on the Thames in March this year, is the UK’s first electric tour boat. She is one of the new generation of river craft on an increasingly greener artery through London’s heartland. “It’s...
Electric vehicle manufacturer BYD have just demonstrated their FLASH charging system for the first time in the UK. This could be something of a game-changer. As we all know, one of the main disadvantages of electric vehicles is the time it takes to re-charge. Despite improved charging...
The former Musée des 24 Heures du Mans (“The Museum of the 24 Hours of Le Mans”) has undergone a renovation and will be re-opening its doors on 28th May 2026, 16 days before this year’s 24hr race event, as simply M24 – Musée du Sport Automobile....
The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel is a major European civil engineering project to lay an 18 km (11.2 mile) road and rail tunnel under the Baltic Sea between Germany and Denmark. (See The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel for overview.) Earlier this week, the first of its 89 pre-fabricated concrete tunnel sections...
The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel is a major European civil engineering project to lay an 18 km (11.2 mile) road and rail tunnel under the Baltic Sea between Germany and Denmark. You notice I said “lay” and not “dig”. This amazing tunnel will be laid in sections in a...
Air New Zealand (ANZ) have unveiled their new economy class ‘Skynest’ mini dormitories, featuring six bunks that will be available to book on flights from 18 May 2026. Each Skynest bunk (“pod”) provides a quiet, private space with a full-length mattress, bedding, ambient lighting, ventilation and charging...
The Škoda Museum in Mladá Boleslav, Czechia, has opened a new gallery in the former car plant buildings, featuring 31 ‘concept cars’, design studies and prototypes from the late 1950s to the present day. The museum, which opened in 1995 in the original factory building and underwent...
One of the earliest eVTOL developers, Autoflight, has revealed Matrix, the world’s first 5-ton class electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Matrix successfully completed a public full transition flight demonstration this week at the company’s low-altitude flight test facility centre in Kunshan,Jiangsu Province. During the demonstration...
Happy New Year everyone! What does the New Year hold for us, in the Mechtraveller worlds of engineering and technology? Well, off the top of my head, there are a few anticipated/scheduled events and a couple of predictions… Autonomous cars in London – We know Waymo has...
This is some interesting engineering. Have you wondered, as you watch your Amazon parcel “just 5 stops away”, what our world would look like if we suddenly lost GPS? It’s not just you, and a squillion delivery drivers. It would effect all transport systems (apart maybe for...
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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