The new age of high speed rail transit is expected to get its start in the Bay Area after voters passed a $9.95 billion bond initiative earlier this month. “It’s done and certified now,” said California High Speed Rail Authority Board Member Ron Diridon. “It goes down from San Francisco down to San Jose, down to Gilroy, under the Pacheco Pass in tunnels to about Merced, and then down the Central Valley, Fresno, on down to Los Angeles and Anaheim.”
Earlier this month, 52 percent of California voters approved the multibillion dollar project to fund the 700-mile system. Officials say that the new project will create more than 450,000,000 jobs and reduce green house gases by taking more cars off the road. In addition, riders are assured that a high-speed train travel between San Diego and Los Angeles will take one hour and fifteen minutes, and just over two and a half hours from San Francisco to Los Angeles. You can further information here.
Opponents of the measure say that California voters are going to be paying a lot more than bargained for as the project continues. Project officials say that the system will be capable of carrying 68 million passengers a year by 2020.
The Irish and US governments have announced details of a pre-clearance agreement for transatlantic services from Shannon Airport, which will make it the first airport in Europe to have the facility.
The announcement was made by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey in Shannon this afternoon. The agreement will be formally signed by him in Washington on Monday and will allow for passengers to undertake all the necessary inspections before departing Shannon for the US. In addition to immigration facilities, the airport will now get customs and agricultural inspections as well
People from the Kingdom will have a direct route to the slopes from this year as Ryanair have announced a new route Kerry - Grenoble for this winter. This brings to 5 the number of routes Ryanair operate from Kerry Airport. Other destinations served are: Dublin, London Stanstead, London Luton and Frankfurt Hahn.
The Irish Examiner did an interesting series this week past on Irish Regional Airports. This follows on comments from Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary that only Kerry and Donegal airports out of all our regional airports have a commercial future. I’d imagine comments like this one went down well in Farranfore and Carrickfinn. You can catch the write-up on Kerry Airpot on Kerry News Blog by clicking here.
The series also included Shannon and Cork airports and how they are likely to be both fighting for the coveted number 2 spot for passenger numbers behind Dublin Airport, which is ever unlikely to be surpassed as the number 1 airport in the country. The series can be found in the Irish Examiner Archives.
Passengers travelling to the US with Aer Lingus will soon face round-trip fuel surcharges of up to €200 after the airline yesterday announced the levy’s second increase in less than a month. From Wednesday, flights to San Francisco and LA will carry a fuel surcharge of €100 each way, up from the current €90.
Meanwhile, flights to Orlando will be hit with an €85 levy, up €10, and the levy on trips to New York, Boston and Washington will rise €10 to €75. Short-haul flights remain free of surcharges. Aer Lingus chalked the latest increase down to “the soaring cost of oil”, rejecting accusations of “profiteering”.
Corporate affairs director Enda Corneille, however, last night admitted the charges were “getting close to” the peak passengers would tolerate. With limited scope for further increases, Aer Lingus is believed to be considering mothballing one of its long-haul planes in Dublin this winter, mirroring Ryanair’s decision to ground “three to four planes” here.
Ryanair is to increase the amounts it charges passengers for using check-in desks and checking in baggage. The new charges take effect immediately for new bookings.
For all bookings made from today, the airline’s checked-in baggage fee will increase from €6 to €9 per bag and the airport check-in fee will increase from €3 to €4.
Ryanair says it wants to encourage more passengers to check in online and travel with just carry-on luggage in order to cut the number of airport check-in desks it uses and the number of handling staff it employs.
