| Fast rail offering hip personalised travel
E-TICKETS, on-board DVD rentals, events, and even new encounters French rail's new iDTGV trains are testing a new way of travel. Music blares from a speaker in a bustling bar and conversations get louder as customers just out of Paris meetings trickle in, settle down and order drinks. The barman hands over a beer, spilling a little as the brightly-coloured buffet car on the top deck of a customised high-speed TGV train rolls into its three-hour journey to the Mediterranean port city of Marseille. Joined to a regular TGV train, this iDTGV, playing on the French word "idee" or "idea", is operated privately, but owned by the national SNCF rail company and designed as a laboratory for future rail travel. Planned party train on the way The iDTGV was launched in December 2004 and offers cheaper tickets, internet reservations, and services aimed at pleasing passengers, including a soon-to-be launched party train, to help the SNCF better compete with low cost airlines.
Mandarin program sparks parents' hopes
Hundreds of parents packed a room at Ohlone Elementary School Wednesday night, sitting on the floor and lining up near the door to learn about the Mandarin-immersion program starting in August. Many said the dual-language program, with its promise of Mandarin fluency by fifth grade, could bring their families closer. None of her children's four grandparents speak English, Simone Wang said. And while the Mandarin program can't help communication with the East Indian pair who speaks Gujarati, it could bring her four-year-old son closer to the Chinese pair. "Hopefully, the family connection is there," she said. The crowd of between 250 and 300 curious parents seemed undaunted by the program's controversial past, including debate at 20 separate school board meetings in the past two years.
Smoltz pulls up shorts (and socks), goes to work
He'd still pitch in plenty of games, just not every fifth day. The way he figures, the plan makes sense this spring for two reasons: It would better allow him to work on the two-seam fastball and curveball he wants to hone; and would allow the Braves to get some starts for the several pitchers who will likely compete for one or two jobs at the back of the rotation. Smoltz said the Braves' improved depth should help him and Tim Hudson feel less pressure to carry so much of the load for the pitching staff. He thinks it might allow Smoltz or Hudson to skip a start or two, if one of them has some soreness, the kind of soreness they wouldn't have let keep them out of a start when the short-handed Braves relied on them so heavily for each start in recent seasons. "I'm not a 'glass' player, I'm not fragile," said Smoltz, who pitched 205-2/3 innings last season and had his first DL stint since 2003, for an inflamed shoulder after he slipped while making a warmup pitch in an early season game.
President Clinton is coming to Austin
I hope ladies who are bent on casting their vote(s) for Hillary Clinton think long and hard with what is at stake. Hillary and McCain are not the caliber to interact with persons world wide. More of ther same. <> Being bought persons they offer no change but much of the same. Sorry. Hillary hubby's pardoningof Marc Rich and Lieberman's guiding angry McCain as like a wheelbarrow. <>An Obama presidency would excite peoples everywhere in a belief that the USA was once again on a path striving to be the hope of mankind. To have such a talented human rise up to become leader of the free world - what a message to send to one and all. Were he to pick Ms Clinton as VP then we would have :) two black presidents in the WH. I wonder if he could deal with Bill wondering if he would tarnish the surroundings as like previously being the case.
SNP must keep its resolutions
Although somewhat front-loaded, that's an average of £98m/year from 2007 to 2012.The additional cash-generating efficiencies which John Swinney announced in his November budget should generate £400m over the next three years. That's an average of £133m/year – more than enough to cover the unplanned £98m/year expense without breaking any manifesto pledges in this term of parliament.Yet still the SNP cyber-activists cite the tram system to try and excuse all the broken pledges. They must think the Scottish public are complete idiots. .
Rent-a-bike scheme could cut queues
OXFORD could soon have its own low-cost, 24-hour rent-a-bike scheme in an effort to cut traffic congestion, as seen in several European cities. Oxfordshire County Council has pledged £100,000 to pay for a feasibility study. The scheme could see a network of cycle stations set up at key points in the city, including the train station, Westgate Centre, park-and-ride sites and city hospitals. Although plans are at an early stage, council chiefs hope a credit card-payable rent-a-bike scheme would take a significant number of cars off the city's roads. They say they want to make any scheme cheap and convenient. A rent-a-bike scheme started in Paris last July recorded more than seven million cycle trips by the end of the year. It is believed the county council wants to replicate the French capital's blueprint of providing robust cycles, which weigh about 20kg, to make them unattractive to thieves and sturdy enough to withstand damage from vandals.
Nebraska AAA Offers Defensive Flying Tips for Holiday Travel
With the two busy holiday travel periods approaching, AAA, North Americas largest travel organization, announced a series of defensive flying tips for airline passengers concerned about the frustrating problem of flight delays.
Clearly airlines, airports and federal agencies can all do a much better job of helping to prevent flight delays, said AAA President and CEO Robert L. Darbelnet. However changes will not be fast or easy and we should not be surprised if this trend continues. This holiday season, travelers are at risk of weather delays and other unforeseen mishaps. Americans need to practice Defensive Flying if they plan to have a pleasant and stress-free flight.
According to AAAs 2006 estimates, 4.8 million leisure travelers flew over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and more than nine million Americans flew during the Christmas-New Years time period.
REFILE-DEALTALK-Trade buyers line up for Dairy Farmers
(Refiles to fix typo in headline) (For more Reuters columns on deals, click [DEALTALK/]) By Victoria Thieberger MELBOURNE, March 7 (Reuters) - Australian milk and cheese producer Dairy Farmers, which put itself up for sale last month, could run into competition concerns because some widely touted trade buyers have overlapping dairy interests. Dairy Farmers says it has had substantial interest in a deal that could be worth up to A$1.0 billion ($930 million). Top Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings' (2503.T: Quote, Profile, Research) Australian dairy and juice producer National Foods is interested in bidding, a source told Reuters this week. Other potential buyers include New Zealand unlisted dairy giant Fonterra, Italy's Parmalat (PLT.MI: Quote, Profile, Research), Australian food group Goodman Fielder (GFF.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) and Singapore's Olam International (OLAM.SI: Quote, Profile, Research).
Regional news: Thousands more flying out of Alexandria airport
Waiting Tuesday for a plane bound for Dallas/Fort Worth, Jamey Johnson, 29, sat in the terminal of the Alexandria International Airport reading the newspaper. Tuesday was Johnson's first day on the job with Thompson Home Health in Alexandria, and he was flying to the corporate office for training. .
Sprint offers two new unlimited service plans
It is about data services — texting, e-mail, video, pictures, music, navigation, surfing the Web and more. Customers want these applications, but without complexity and without having to worry about their bill.”</p><p>Wall Street, however, was less than impressed.</p><p>“I'm not seeing anything here that's going to change the trajectory much,” said Timothy Horan, an analyst with <strong>Oppenheimer & Co.</strong></p><p>Horan noted that T-Mobile has a plan that offers 1,000 minutes of talk, 1,000 text messages and e-mail for $55.</p><p>John Garcia, Sprint's acting chief marketing officer, said services offered by Sprint and T-Mobile aren't comparable.</p><p>“They are still in a fairly slow network and their data offering is primarily just text and e-mail,” Garcia said during a call with investment analysts.
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