Welcome back to The Up Front Update! This week, we’re talking the high-speed rail competition between London, Paris, Brussels, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe. Plus:
- a shift in the ownership (and likely strategy) for Canada’s WestJet, the first American A321XLRs with Collins Aurora arrive (and are reportedly now certified)
- Emirates offers a round of new accessibility options for disabled passengers and travellers with additional needs
- there are ructions between France and Côte d’Ivoire over flight rights now Air Côte d’Ivoire is flying
- the latest on the Finnair A321 fleet grounded with improperly washed seat covers
But first:
Our top note this week: Eurostar picks new double-decker trains, but the details don’t quite match up
Eurostar has finally ordered its next generation of high-speed trains, the double-decker French Alstom Avelia Horizon that the French SNCF will also be using. But the order numbers are odd, the announcement details are a little suspicious and the timing raises some eyebrows — so take those credulous UK media reports of double-decker TGVs through the Channel Tunnel with more than a pincée of salt.
Eurostar’s new trains, which it’s calling Celestia, are 200m-long double-decker units consisting of separate power cars at each end and 9 carriages. These 200m trains would presumably be coupled together to reach the current 400m length of the Eurostar trains that run through the Channel Tunnel, to meet both London-Europe capacity demands and the need for both halves of a Channel Tunnel train to be able to split in an emergency.
But what’s going to be on board?
