News

More rail lines, Vande Bharat tenders, to be immediate agenda for Vaishnaw

The task is cut out for Ashwini Vaishnaw, who retained the railways portfolio. The transporter that virtually runs an operational deficit is hugely dependent on Budget funds and borrowed monies for its capital expenditure. While the Narendra Modi 2.0 government did not let the capex growth slow, unless the project financing models are rejigged and the railway’s own finances are improved with additional increases in passenger traffic, the investment pace will stagger. It is important to get the public private partnership project going in more segments of railway infrastructure Over the last six months, the speed of projects had slowed down considerably in the run up to the general elections. “Whether it’s tenders for Vande Bharat trains or network augmentation, we expect the ministry will swing into action pretty quickly,” said Harshit Kapadia, VP (Consumer Durable & Electrical and Capital Goods) at Elara Securities. For instance, it’s likely that the ministry will float tenders for about 100-200 Vande Bharat trains besides coming out with another set of tenders for the Vande Bharat Sadharan trains, which are regular speed trains offering experience similar to semi high-speed Vande Bharat trains. “Some of the tenders in the pipeline will come out. The focus will be on Vande Bharat sleeper class,” said an analyst. The ministry is likely to speed up the infrastructure development which includes doubling of lines, adding new lines and gauge conversion. In the interim budget 2024-25, nearly 30% of the allocations were made to the network augmentation out of the total railways budget. “They will be adding around 5,500 kms of new lines,” said the analyst quoted above. Another major focus area for the new minister will be the ramping up of Kavach system. Earlier, just three companies were competing in the market. But because the government has plans to cover about 5,000 kms of rail tracks with Kavach every year (by 2025-26), up from about 1,500 kms annually now, it allowed (in last November) two more players — Germany’s Siemens and Japan’s Kyosan — to install Kavach system on the rail network. That’s not that. Even though the indigenously-developed Kavach system will remain in focus, the ministry will keep on experimenting with other safety mechanisms. Experts said that the ministry will fast-track the ambitious HSR (high-speed rail) project between Ahmadabad and Mumbai. “More HSR corridors could be announced in the first few months, including Ahmadabad-Delhi, Delhi-Chandigarh, Amritsar-Jammu, Delhi-Varanasi and Varanasi-Howrah. This is part of the BJP’s manifesto, so this will be a priority area for the ministry, ” said Elara’s Kapadia.

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IRCTC launches seven-day tour package to Sri Lanka

Bringing cheer to those who are planning a trip to Sri Lanka, the Indian Railway Catering Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has rolled out a weeklong travel package from July 14 to the teardrop-shaped island. The tour will be a golden opportunity to walk through the trails of the ancient epic Ramayana and explore other tourist spots in Sri Lanka. The package will take the tourists from Colombo to the snow-capped Nuwara Eliya mountains. The flight from Kochi, which departs at 10.20 am, will reach Sri Lanka at 11.30 am on July 14. The tourists will first visit the Manavari Munneswaram Temple, which is on the way to Dambulla, where they will stay for the night. The second day kicks off with a tour of the Sigiriya Fort and the Dambulla Cave Temple. Later, the travellers can offer prayers at the Thiru Koneswaram Temple and the Sree Lakshmi Narayana Perumal Temple. The visitors can explore Kandy on the third day. First, they will be taken to the Royal Botanical Gardens and Peradeniya. The itinerary includes a visit to the Kandy cultural exhibition and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. The fourth day of the package starts by offering prayers at the Bahiravakanda Buddha Statue. The afternoon is packed with visits to the Ramboda Hanuman Temple and the tea factory in Nuwara Eliya. The fifth day is dotted with trips to Gayatri Peedam, Sita Amman Temple, Gregory Lake and the Divurumpola Temple. After visiting the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, the tourists will travel to the capital city of Colombo where they will visit the Panchamukha Anjaneya Temple and the Kelaniya Buddha Temple. As part of the Colombo city tour, the tourist will get an opportunity to see the Clock Tower Light House, Galle Face, Colombo Harbour, Beira Lake, Independence Square, National Museum and Nelum Pokuna Theatre and Town Hall. The next day the tourists will board the flight to Kochi. During the seven-day tour, the travellers can visit all the tourist spots and the spiritual and pilgrimage centers associated with the ancient Indian epic Ramayana. The package includes round-trip air tickets, food, three-star accommodation, AC vehicles, entry tickets, visa expenses, an English-speaking tour guide, travel insurance and tax. The package starts from Rs 66,400 and for more details contact IRCTC at 8287932082.

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Infrastructure upgrade work at Sealdah station complete, train services to normalise soon

Work on the ongoing infrastructure upgrade at Sealdah station in Kolkata is now complete and train services are likely to be normal soon, an official said on Sunday. The modernisation activities started from the early hours of Friday, which resulted in several suburban trains being cancelled or short-terminated in the last three days. "To accommodate the operation of 12-coach EMU trains on the Sealdah Main section, we implemented several infrastructural modifications, including modernising the interlocking system. Consequently, platforms 1 to 5 at Sealdah station were closed from last Friday until 2 pm today, as per the planned schedule,” Eastern Railway spokesperson Kausik Mitra said. “However, the work was completed two hours ahead of schedule, allowing EMU train operations to commence on all platforms 1 to 5 from noon today. Although train services have resumed, some trains may experience slight delays," Mitra said. Meanwhile, several passengers complained of hardships for the third consecutive day on Sunday, claiming lack of information regarding long-distance trains, which were delayed but not cancelled. Sealdah station remained crowded since Saturday night with passengers affected by the cancellation and short-termination of trains. Another official said that out of the 21 platforms at Sealdah, operations in only five were suspended for the infrastructure upgrade work.

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New Sleeper Trains Cut Travel Time From Hong Kong To Beijing & Shanghai By Half

Hong Kong has just launched a brand new high-speed sleeper train service that will significantly cut down travel time between Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. Starting June 15th, travellers can zip from Hong Kong to Beijing in just 12.5 hours, compared to what was previously a full day trip. The journey to Shanghai is similarly streamlined, going from a lengthy 19.5 hours down to a much more manageable 11 hours, as announced by MTR Corp, Hong Kong’s mass railway operator. This initiative is a major step forward in strengthening ties between Hong Kong and mainland China. The convenient sleeper train format allows passengers to maximise their travel time. As per information available online, the overnight trains will operate from Fridays to Mondays, offering a limited schedule for now. While the new high-speed sleeper trains offer a unique travel experience, price might be a deciding factor for some. Travellers can expect to pay as low as HK$937 (around $120 USD) for a sleeper berth to Beijing and HK$682 (around $87 USD) to Shanghai. Sleepers will likely cost more. For budget-conscious travellers, it's important to note that flights between these cities are significantly cheaper. In mid-June, you can find flights from Hong Kong to Beijing for around $100 USD (taking only 3.5 hours) and even cheaper flights to Shanghai, sometimes as low as $78 USD (under 3 hours). For those who prefer a daytime journey, existing long-haul train services will continue to operate, catering to different travel preferences.

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Hyatt enjoys ‘robust’ demand for European business travel and meetings

Hotel company Hyatt is continuing to see “robust” demand for business travel in Europe while noting a post-Covid change in the pattern of bookings. Paul Dalgleish, Hyatt’s VP of revenue, sales and distribution in the EAME (Europe, Africa and Middle East) region, said that transient business travel was “doing well”, alongside buoyant demand for meetings and events at its European hotels. Dalgleish said he expected to see overall revenue growth of around 5.5 to 6 per cent for Hyatt in the EAME region this year compared with its 2023 performance. “I’m very optimistic – we’re not seeing a slowdown in any of our sectors,” said Dalgleish during a press conference at the new Grand Hyatt hotel in Barcelona, which opened in April. “Business travel is quite robust. IT, consultancy, pharmaceuticals and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) are our top sectors. In general, all of our segments are up – albeit by different percentages.” But Dalgleish also highlighted a change in corporate booking patterns with more business travellers now choosing to go on midweek trips than they did pre-pandemic. “London as a city is dead on Monday and Friday but comes alive on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,” he added. “The younger generation want to come into the office but the older generation is doing Monday and Friday at home and coming in during the week. “There are different patterns of business travel and it’s being compressed into the week. We’re offering competitive rates on shoulder dates, and they are taking advantage of that and spreading it out. “There’s massive demand for people to have interpersonal connectivity again but patterns have changed and it’s up to us to react to that.” Dalgleish expressed confidence about the strength of the business travel market in Europe this year. But he added that the many elections being held across the region this year could have a “knock-on effect on government travel”. Meetings demand 'accelerates'- He added that the meetings market was continuing to “accelerate beyond other sectors” for Hyatt in Europe where MICE business accounts for 25 per cent of its overall sales. Dalgleish said meeting planners were increasingly focused on offering experiential or unique events, while sustainability and wellbeing were also becoming more important factors. “There’s a lot of focus on sustainability and wellbeing – different organisations have different levels and asks,” he explained. “For large corporates it’s becoming more important than the price. “There are less corporate meetings but when corporate meetings take place they are larger in size and longer in length of time. “We’re seeing the leisure components coming in. Whether that’s people arriving for a leisure experience before or after meetings. We’re also seeing meetings where families were brought in.” Franck Sibille, general manager of the Grand Hyatt Barcelona and area VP for Spain and Morocco, emphasised Hyatt’s efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of its hotels. “We have a lot of requests from MICE clients asking what are we doing?” he added. “Our bottles of water are made of recycled plastic and one of our biggest innovations we’re implementing is on food waste. “We now have equipment to measure what we’re wasting – there’s a camera that gives us information that we’re wasting X kilos of bread or rice, for example. We’re monitoring and tracing food waste in all the hotels and our goal is to reduce that.”

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Corporate Travel Gets A Tech Upgrade: PredictX Rolls Out New Air Sourcing Tool

PredictX launches Air Sourcing Navigator, a new app to optimize corporate air travel deals and plans expansions into hotel and transport. Travel tech expert PredictX has introduced a novel application aimed at assisting corporate travel managers in enhancing their air travel programs. The application, named Air Sourcing Navigator, gathers a company’s data on air travel and expenses from the PredictX analytics platform. This data is analyzed and compared to benchmarks to uncover opportunities for travel managers to secure or improve deals with airlines on particular routes or travel classes. The company said in a statement that the PredictX platform collects data from sources such as TMCs, expense systems, credit cards, online booking tools, suppliers and HR systems. Air Sourcing Navigator also uses technology from PredictX’s AI-based platform sheri.ai, which was launched in November 2023, to allow users to “interpret the data in more detail”. Keesup Choe, CEO of PredictX, said: “Our platform puts the power of AI at their fingertips, so that they can immediately make better decisions based on accurate data and predictive insights. “We identified air sourcing as an area where buyers would benefit from our AI-led approach to data science to make informed decisions based on dynamic insights. We are therefore delighted to be bringing Air Sourcing Navigator to market as our latest product innovation.” Choe also mentioned that later in 2024, the company plans to release applications designed for sourcing hotels and ground transportation.

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