Giornico, Switzerland (dpa) – The train looks like a London double-decker bus that has been curiously twisted into a trapezoid shape.

It’s actually the bright red Ritombahn funicular railway, one of the steepest of its kind in the world.

It rises 800 metres at a dizzy gradient of 87.8 per cent. The ascent is rapid and the view expands accordingly. Soon vehicles on the Gotthard A2 motorway look like tiny Matchbox toy cars whizzing silently northbound or towards the Upper Italian lakes.
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Posted: April 15th, 2013 under Europe.
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Wed Mar 13, 2013 6:41am EDT

(Reuters.com) – Seeking a place to work out of the office that is quieter than a bustling coffee shop and provides drinks, printers, Wi-Fi and even petrol?

Regus, a provider of ready-to-use office space, thinks it has the answer.

It has teamed up with Shell Germany to open up workplace hubs and lounges in 70 petrol stations in and around Berlin that will provide Wi-Fi hotspots, scanners, printers, phone charging and even meeting rooms, depending on the space available.

“You already see people working in Starbucks, hotel lobbies. They want facilities they’re not getting there though, such as printers, phone charging, the ability to sit somewhere quiet and make a phone call,” Phil Kemp, global managing director for Regus Third Place told Reuters.

The hubs are what Regus terms the ‘third place’ for workers, the first and second being the office and the home. Working in this way is a trend that is being driven by the explosion in tablet computers and smartphones.

“People are no longer bound by the nine-to-five, or having to physically be in an office,” Kemp said.

“With a mixture of the office, home and third place, you can be there to pick up the children from school, get to that important event and cut down on commuting times,” he added.

The Shell deal is part of a wider strategy to bring these third places to air, road, rail and retail locations all over the world.

Regus has already set up hubs within four Staples office stores in the UK, and has a series of workhubs on the rail network in the Netherlands. It is in talks with airports too, but has not announced any deals yet.

“We’re trying to do this globally; we’ll focus on Western Europe and the United States initially and then look to spread further,” Kemp said.

Regus doesn’t break down numbers for its Third Place activities, saying it is too soon as the unit is still in the start-up phase. Overall the group has revenue of 1.24 billion pounds, generated from over 1,500 locations in 100 countries.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan. Editing by Peter Myers)

Posted: March 30th, 2013 under Travel News.
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By Dan Levine

SAN FRANCISCO |
Wed Mar 13, 2013 6:39am EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit against United Continental Holdings Inc’s United Airlines that was brought by a woman who claimed she was not promptly provided a wheelchair in an airport when she asked for one.

The opinion, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, said federal law did not pre-empt the woman’s personal injury claims under state law.

A representative for United could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mark Meuser, an attorney for plaintiff Michelle Gilstrap, who has difficulty walking, said some lower court judges had disagreed about whether individuals should be able to bring claims for injuries in an airplane or terminal.

“This is a really big deal for disabled Americans across the country,” Meuser said.

Gilstrap had difficulty walking due to a collapsed disc in her back and osteoarthritis, according to the court opinion. During two separate plane trips in 2008 and 2009, she alleged that United failed to supply a wheelchair on some occasions.

She also said United agents yelled at her, doubted whether she really needed a wheelchair and ordered her to stand in line, which she could not do because of her condition.

Gilstrap sued, and a Los Angeles federal judge dismissed her case. In Tuesday’s three-judge ruling, the 9th Circuit said Gilstrap could not pursue her claims under the Americans for Disabilities Act.

However, the court ruled that Gilstrap’s claims, including emotional distress and negligence, under state law were not pre-empted by the Air Carrier Access Act. The appeals court remanded the case for further proceedings.

The case in the 9th Circuit is Michelle Gilstrap vs. United Air Lines Inc., 11-55271.

(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Posted: March 28th, 2013 under Travel News.
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By Jane Sutton

MIAMI BEACH, Florida |
Wed Mar 13, 2013 6:51am EDT

MIAMI BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – Carnival Corp (CCL.N) (CCL.L) has launched a comprehensive review of its entire fleet after a fire crippled one of its ships last month, and will share its findings across the industry, Carnival Cruise Lines’ chief executive told a conference on Tuesday.

The engine-room fire disabled the Bahamian-flagged Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving it adrift with more than 4,000 passengers and crew aboard. The accident made headlines around the world and comedians had a field day with the ensuing plumbing problems.

“We’ve started a comprehensive review of our entire fleet,” Carnival Cruise Lines President and Chief Executive Gerry Cahill told the annual Cruise Shipping Miami conference.

“It will take us a little bit of time to complete it but you can rest assured that it is our highest priority in the entire organization, it is the thing we are most focused on and we will come up with some solutions that we can implement across our fleet,” he said.

The company has assembled teams of fire safety experts, naval architects, electrical and mechanical engineers and engine manufacturers to conduct its own investigation, Cahill added.

The Triumph was on its way back to Galveston, Texas, when a leak in a fuel return line caused a fire in the aft engine room. The ship has two independent engine rooms but the fire damage knocked out both, Cahill said.

A diesel generator kicked in to run emergency services, but could not run what Cahill described as “hotel services”, most notably the plumbing in the cabins.

Cahill said the company investigation would focus on fire prevention and suppression, engine-room backup systems, and on figuring out what hotel service facilities could be run with emergency generators.

Carnival is cooperating with ongoing investigations by the U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board and the Bahamian government, as well as a review by the Cruise Line International Association CLIA.L, he added.

Carnival Corp is the world’s largest cruise line, with 100 ships under brands that include Carnival, Cunard, Holland America, Princess, Seabourn and Costa.

RIPPLE EFFECT

Cruise executives frequently say the attention lavished on their competitors’ new ships creates a rising tide of demand that benefits them all. Accidents cause similar ripples throughout the industry.

“The recent Triumph incident affects all of us,” said Christine Duffy, president and chief executive of CLIA, which represents 58 cruise lines worldwide. “Even though such incidents are rare, we don’t underestimate their impact.”

Nonetheless, industry projections are chronically rosy. Cruising is a $36 billion industry worldwide, part of a $9.9 trillion global travel industry that represents 9 percent of global GDP, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Some 20 million people took cruises last year and CLIA projects this year’s total will rise 3.3 percent to hit 20.9 million.

“We have been the fastest-growing segment inside the travel industry,” Duffy said.

Despite tough economic times, passenger numbers have risen every year over the last decade, she said. North America is still far and away the biggest source of cruise passengers, though the percentage from outside North America rose to 31 percent last year, from 9 percent in 2000.

Industry officials expect strong growth in China and other parts of Asia, where tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of people are moving into the middle classes and eager to see the world.

“They may not be comfortable going on their own but are comfortable going on one of our ships,” Duffy said.

The industry has added 168 new ships since 2000. Twenty-five more oceangoing and river-cruising ships will come on line in the next two years, but the pace is slowing, ending a glut of berths that had led to discounting.

Kevin Sheehan, chief executive of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH.O), which recently went public, predicted the industry would soon “move pricing to more respectable levels”.

If the economy holds steady or improves slightly “then this industry will outperform”, Sheehan said.

The cruise line chiefs say their industry is resilient, in part because it has good overall safety.

Sheehan called it “the safest, safest, safest vacation experience that anybody could ever have”.

Pierfrancesco Vago, chief executive of MSC Cruises, a privately owned European line, suggested vacationers have short memories. Last year’s Costa Concordia accident caused bookings in Italy to plummet, especially scaring away first-time cruisers, he said.

Bookings are still erratic, but are growing again, in part because cruising is perceived as good value, he said.

“It’s amazing how this 2012 has been forgotten. We’ve seen already the new wave season, 2013, that the first-comers are coming back again,” Vago said. “2013 is looking much better, stronger.”

(Editing by David Adams and Dale Hudson)

Posted: March 26th, 2013 under Travel News.
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By Jonathan Saul

LONDON |
Fri Mar 15, 2013 11:27am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) – London remains the top financing centre for the global transport industry, although it faces stiff competition from New York and capitals in Asia Pacific as companies seek to tap more funding sources, a survey showed on Friday.

Some 37 per cent of respondents from the global aviation, rail and shipping sectors ranked London as the key financial centre for transport, followed by New York at 14 percent and Singapore at 7 percent, the survey by international law firm Norton Rose found.

“London and New York remain key financial centres for the transport industry but are looking over their shoulders at Asia which is growing in importance,” said Harry Theochari, global head of transport at Norton Rose.

Of those canvassed, 43 percent from the rail industry said London was most favoured as a financing hub, followed by 40 percent in the shipping sector and 31 percent in aviation.

The annual survey by Norton Rose, now in its fourth year, is one of the transport sector’s leading barometers of market conditions, especially for the shipping community.

While London has a 300-year history as a leading finance, insurance and legal centre for the shipping industry, the survey said companies were looking at alternatives due to tough trading conditions, exemplified by a warning last month from Frontline (FRO.OL), one of the world’s biggest tanker operators.

Frontline said it may miss bond repayments due in 2015 and be forced to restructure again if the market’s depression continues.

“A dramatic reduction in the availability of debt finance in the London market means that shipping is increasingly turning to structured finance and private equity,” Theochari said.

“This gives New York a distinct advantage, as it has the largest capital markets in the world and far greater access to private equity than any other global financial centre.”

The survey canvassed views from 1,006 participants from a range of companies involved in transport including financiers, ship owners and operators, manufacturers, builders and industry advisors. Those polled comprised 383 from the aviation sector, 314 from rail and 309 from shipping. (Editing by David Holmes)

Posted: March 24th, 2013 under Travel News.
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By Euan Rocha

TORONTO |
Fri Mar 15, 2013 10:48am EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) – BlackBerry will offer technology to separate and make secure both work and personal data on mobile devices powered by Google Inc’s Android platform and by Apple Inc’s iOS operating system, the company said on Thursday.

The new feature could help BlackBerry sell high-margin services to enterprise clients even if many, or all, of their workers are using smartphones made by BlackBerry’s competitors. That may be crucial for the company as it has lost a vast amount of market share to the iPhone and to Android devices, such as Samsung Electronics Co’s (005930.KS) Galaxy line.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said he expects BlackBerry’s device management software to gain traction this year, and boost revenue next year.

“Supporting devices with the best, most secure, and easiest-to-use mobile solution should enable RIM to transform into what we believe is an attractive model,” he said in a note to clients.

The offering could help BlackBerry shore up its profitable services business. BlackBerry’s shares plunged in December after it said it would change the way it charges for services, cutting fees for customers that do not need advanced security and other enhanced features.

The new Secure Work Space feature will be available before the end of June, and will be managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the platform that allows BlackBerry’s corporate and government clients to handle devices using different operating systems on their networks.

BlackBerry said the feature fences off corporate email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, web browsing and document editing from personal apps and content, which could be less secure.

BALANCING ACT

In a bid to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced a new line of smartphones powered by its BlackBerry 10 operating system earlier this year.

The touch screen version, dubbed the Z10, is on sale in more than 20 countries, while a device called the Q10, with a physical keyboard, will be available in April.

The new devices have a feature called Balance, which keeps corporate and personal data separate. It allows information technology departments to manage the corporate content on a device, while ensuring privacy for users, who can store and use personal apps and content on the same phone without corporate oversight.

With Secure Work Space, “we’re extending as many of these (Balance) features as possible to other platforms,” David Smith, BlackBerry’s head of mobile enterprise computing, said in a statement.

BlackBerry’s move comes as Samsung, whose Galaxy devices have gained great popularity, attempts to make itself a more viable option for business customers with security features such as Samsung Knox and SAFE, or Samsung for Enterprise.

BlackBerry said Secure Work Space means clients would not need to configure and manage expensive virtual private network VPN.L infrastructure in order to give workers’ devices access to data and applications that reside behind corporate firewalls.

“Secure Work Space also offers the same end-to-end encryption for data in transit as we have offered on BlackBerry for many years, so there is no need for a VPN,” Peter Devenyi, head of enterprise software, said in an interview.

SELLING SERVICES

The new feature could also help stem declines in BlackBerry’s service revenue. That business has long been a cash cow for BlackBerry because of the large clients that pay to use its extensive network and security offerings.

However, the company has been under pressure to reduce its infrastructure access fees, and opted to do so during the transition to BlackBerry 10. Due to the changes, BlackBerry’s service revenue is expected to decline over the course of this year.

Giving its large array of corporate clients the ability to manage BlackBerry devices, along with Android smartphones and iPhones on their networks might encourage both corporate and government clients to continue to pay for and use BlackBerry’s device management services.

BlackBerry plans to report quarterly results on March 28.

Last week, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said sales of the Z10 had surpassed BlackBerry’s expectations in emerging markets such as India, where cheaper entry-level phones are typically popular.

On Wednesday, the company said it had received an order for 1 million BlackBerry 10 smartphones – the largest order it has ever had from a single customer – and its shares jumped.

BlackBerry’s volatile stock closed up 8.2 percent at $15.65 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, while its Toronto-listed shares rose by a similar margin to C$16.04.

The shares pared gains on Thursday, falling 2.3 percent to $15.29 in late morning trading on the Nasdaq. In Toronto, its shares were 2 percent lower at C$15.72. (Reporting by Euan Rocha and Allison Martell; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Lisa Von Ahn and Peter Galloway)

Posted: March 22nd, 2013 under Travel News.
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By Ben Dobbin

ROCHESTER, New York |
Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:37am EDT

ROCHESTER, New York (Reuters) – Synonymous with film photography, lilacs and classical music, Rochester offers an unusual array of attractions for a mid-sized U.S. city that brought industrial prowess to a scenic river gorge on Lake Ontario’s southern shore.

From top-ranked golf courses and national-landmark house museums to a children’s emporium of play and America’s oldest municipal park-garden cemetery, the city in western New York is crammed with surprises for visitors of all interests.

Its glacier-carved linchpin is a trio of waterfalls trumpeting the Genesee River’s thunderous descent into Lake Ontario.

Reuters correspondents with local knowledge help visitors get the most out of a short stay in Rochester (pop. 210,855), variously known over two centuries as the Flour City, the Flower City and, less so of late, the World’s Image Center.

FRIDAY

5:30 p.m. – Dinner at Dinosaur Barbecue (www.dinosaurbarbque.com), a honky tonk rib joint tucked into a former railroad station overlooking the river. Take in a view of the unstoppable torrent from the adjacent Court Street Bridge before digging in to brisket, cornbread and tomato-cucumber salad.

7 p.m. – Head back across the bridge to Blue Cross Arena (www.bluecrossarena.com) for a dash of ice-hockey escapades hollering on the Rochester Americans. For spring and summer alternatives, catch a Rochester Red Wings baseball game at Frontier Field (www.rochesterredwings.com) or the Rochester Rhinos soccer team at Sahlen’s Stadium (www.rhinossoccer.com).

For people who prefer stage or dance, there’s Geva Theatre (www.gevatheatre.org) or an occasional hometown performance by the top-notch Garth Fagan dance troupe (www.garthfagandance.org).

9:30 p.m. – End the day with a Genesee cream ale or Finger Lakes Riesling and a twirl on the dance floor at one of an assortment of bars and music halls that abound in the lively East End.

SATURDAY

9 a.m. – Try yogurt and granola plus an egg Danish – caramelized onions baked in fluffy pastry topped with an egg – at Flower City Bread in the Rochester Public Market (www.cityofrochester.gov/publicmarket). This magnet for bargain food shoppers, situated since 1905 on Union Street in the gritty northeast section, has a ring of casual eateries.

10:30 a.m. – Head to the Genesee River at its most spectacular stretch north of downtown for a peek into the city’s water-powered origins. Repurposed factories and remnants of a once flourishing flour industry form a ghostly backdrop to the 90-foot (27.4 meter) cascade known as High Falls.

Among panoramic vantage points above the waterfall and its wide gorge basin are a pedestrian bridge and the rooftop patio of a pub-style restaurant in Genesee Beer and Ale brewery (www.geneseebeer.com/brew-house).

For more outdoors adventure, take a short drive north to a path behind Maplewood Park’s rose garden that descends close to river level in the nearly 200-foot-deep gorge.

11:30 a.m. – The red-brick Victorian home of women’s rights crusader Susan B. Anthony (www.susanbanthonyhouse.org) is a highlight among memorials concentrated in upstate New York that extol women’s achievements in molding the nation.

Step into the parlor where Anthony was arrested after daring to vote in 1872. The home contains the trademark alligator bag she carried on frequent travels, and the bed she died in after delivering her “Failure is Impossible” speech in Washington in 1906.

12:30 – Cross downtown into the South Wedge neighborhood for lunch at Mise en Place (miseenplacemarket.com), a modest grocery-cum-diner with window tables looking out at a string of rib restaurants, pubs and bakeries along South Avenue. Cheesy Eddie’s is a stalwart for cheesecake, while newcomers include The Little Bleu Cheese Shop and Hedonist Artisan Chocolates and Hedonist Artisan Ice Cream.

1:30 p.m. – Memorial Art Gallery (mag.rochester.edu), located for 100 years in an Italian Renaissance-style architectural gem in the East-side arts district, features an eclectic collection of 12,000 works of art, from Impressionist paintings to metal sculptures by hometown luminary Albert Paley.

Search out the only full-size Italian Baroque organ in North America, a 600-pipe, fully restored instrument built around 1770 that is played at periodic recitals by students at the acclaimed Eastman School of Music.

Children in tow? A popular alternative is The Strong (www.museumofplay.org), the second-largest museum devoted to children in the United States. Among dozens of interactive educational exhibits are a butterfly garden, a streetscape from television’s Sesame Street and a whaling ship.

3 p.m. – Stroll from the art gallery along University Avenue. Dawdle over coffee or antiques at the Flatiron building or photo art at Image City Photography Gallery.

3:30 p.m. – The walk extends to George Eastman House (www.eastmanhouse.org), the world’s oldest museum of photography and motion pictures with an archive of 400,000 images stretching back to 1830s daguerreotypes.

View old cameras, famous original photos and film reels at Eastman’s majestic 1905 Colonial Revival mansion and villa-style gardens. The patriarch of popular photography, Eastman founded Eastman Kodak Co, which ruled the world of film photography for over a century but has been brought to its knees by a swift shift to the digital technology it helped pioneer but couldn’t capitalize on.

6:30 p.m. – For a cut-above meal, try the restaurant Good Luck (www.restaurantgoodluck.com). Its tapas-style dishes are meant to be shared, from red lentils to smoked pork shank.

9 p.m. – Head to The Little (www.thelittle.org) for an indie, foreign or art film in a funky 1929 Art Deco theater on East Avenue.

SUNDAY

8:30 a.m. – Start the day with French toast or Eggs Benedict at The Frog Pond (eatatthefrogpond.com/) in the fashionable Park Avenue district.

10 a.m. – On the edge of downtown is Mount Hope Cemetery (www.cityofrochester.gov/mounthope), a 196-acre arboretum favored by dog walkers, history buffs and curious souls. A classic example of a pre-Civil War “rural cemetery,” Mount Hope is a heavily wooded jumble of ridges, ravines and meadows with gravestones and mausoleums set amid fountains, ornate sculptures and stone terraces fringed with wildflowers and pines.

11 a.m. – Across the street, stroll through Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Highland Park (www.monroecounty.gov/parks-highland.php), famous for its lilac bushes and a floral, food, art and musical festival in May that serves as the true advent of spring in a city where snowfall tops 100 inches (2.5 meters) in a typical winter.

12:30 – Lunch at The Food Bar in the suburb of Pittsford.

1:30 p.m. – Tee off at one of the Rochester region’s 90-plus golf courses to get a feel for the undulating, tree-framed terrain the world’s top golfers will encounter at two majors here this year: the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Pittsford on August 5-11 and the Wegmans LPGA Championship at nearby Locust Hill from June 3-9 (www.golfrochesterguide.net/). (Editing by Patricia Reaney and Jim Marshall)

Posted: March 20th, 2013 under Travel News.
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