Tightened security measures are being implemented at airports and railway stations across Germany after a new threat of terrorism has emerged.

Parcel bombs were discovered on cargo planes last month, one of which had been sent via Cologne in Germany but was intercepted in the UK.

The country’s interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said extra security measures will be in place until further notice after a tip-off from an unnamed country gave “concrete indications” of attacks planned for the end of this month. He told a news conference in Berlin: “There are grounds for concern, but not for hysteria.”

Much speedier trips on Eurostar could be in the offing as the operator has announced plans to spend £700 million on the redesign of its fleet and in investment of ten new trains that could reduce London to Paris journey times.

The move is privately funded by the operator together with cash and bank financing. The project will start next year and will see rolling stock receive a makeover by Italian designers Pininfarina.

The new Eurostar e3202 trains will be ‘interoperable’ which means they can operate across the European high speed rail network and provide non-stop services between London and a number of European destinations.

The trains will have a fifth larger capacity than current Eurostar trains and be able to take 900 passengers plus luggage. The train will be able to travel up to 200mph which will reduce the journey time between London and Paris to around the two hours mark, the London to Amsterdam journey to under four hours, and London to Geneva to about five hours.

Google, together with Russian Railways have launched a virtual train journey along the famous Trans Siberian Railway which goes across two continents, 12 regions and 87 cities. You navigate the journey by clicking on the area you’d like to view and are taken along as if you are sitting on the train and gazing out of the window. The film quality is brilliant and you can accompany your journey with the realistic sound of the rumbling of wheels, or by listening to some Russian radio or Nikolai Gogol’s “Dead Souls”, or even Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”. You can also click on icons on the map which will give you interesting information about areas on the journey.

I imagine that this step for Google and Russian Railways will push forward the virtual world that many use  already online, it will enable people looking at different places to go on holiday to get a realistic taster of the feeling of being there rather than staged shots in travel guides where a lot of the pictures can be quite similar.

Some state that this could be an alternative for cash-strapped people who want to look at areas of the world they may never get to travel to, however I think that it may give those with the natural curiosity to travel even more itchy feet; it certainly did me! For whatever reason you’d like to see the Trans Siberian Railway though, this new view is worth a look. Check it out here.

There will be no Eurostar services to Brussels until at least Sunday following the commuter crash outside the city this week that killed 18 people and injured 150 people.

The operator says it is running a reduced service between its English stations and Lille and normal services between London and Paris. Brussels to Cologne operations resumed on Wednesday. However, the high speed service to Amsterdam is still suspended and you should check services out of Paris before travelling there.

Eurostar passengers are reaching Brussels from Lille via limited capacity shuttle bus but if it is not necessary to travel and you have tickets booked from now until the 26th February then you can get a refund or exchange your tickets as there are likely to still be major disruptions to services during this time. For more detailed advice on how to exchange your tickets, go to the Eurostar website via this link.

 Two passenger trains have collided at 8.30am (local time) today in Halle, Belgium, with 20 confirmed dead so far.

The horrific accident occurred due to one of the trains missing a stop signal recent reports have said. Belgium’s track operator, Infrabel said that an official investigation into the cause of the crash is already underway.

Doctors were treating some passengers at the scene of the crash, including performing amputations, while others were taken to nearby hospitals to be treated. Around 150 slightly injured passengers were taken to a sports hall for treatment.

At the moment there is some confusion over the total number of people killed in the accident with conflicting reports being made; however the latest official report is that 20 people have died, with the possibility of the death toll rising.

A French newspaper has released a report that claims that the Eurostar snow chaos in December was down to old and badly-maintained trains.

Seven days before Christmas passengers were trapped in the Channel Tunnel for up to 16 hours when the trains broke down. Some were left in darkness and they were given little to eat or drink in that time it has been reported. Air-conditioning and toilets on the train also broke down, with one carriage being designated as an “open toilet” area conditions were so bad. 

At the time Eurostar said excessively fine powdery snow that managed to get into the trains’ engine was to blame. Eurostar suggested it was the tunnel’s operator, Eurotunnel‘s fault that passengers were not rescued more quickly. But the report in Le Parisien claims that the blame lies with Eurostar, adding that improved procedures should be in place to stop snow entering the engines and calls for “winterisation” of trains, preparing them for cold weather.

 The official report into the breakdown is damning, claiming that contingency plans to aid the rescue of passengers and for those unable to travel were “insufficient” and train crew were also criticised for “going into hiding” during the power failures.

The review’s joint chairmen Christopher Garnett and Claude Gressier have set out three core recommendations for Eurostar:

1) Train reliability – engineering improvements which will enhance the reliability of its trains

2) Evacuation and rescue – improvements should be made to tunnel evacuation and rescue procedures which will ensure passengers can be transported from the tunnel quickly and effectively

3) Managing disruption and improving communication – improvements to assist passengers better and provide more effective communication in times of disruption.

Eurostar have claimed that they will invest more than £30 million into implementing these recommendations stating in an apologetic article on their website that “Eurostar is fully committed to ensuring that the disruption our travellers experienced before Christmas never happens again and that we win back your confidence and trust in our service.”

You can view Eurostar’s full response to the official review here.

The independent probe into the breakdown of Eurostar trains in the Channel Tunnel before Christmas is not expected to produce its results until the second week in February.

A statement from review joint chairman Christopher Garnett and Claude Gressier said “good progress” was being made.

“Everyone is being extremely open and co-operative in helping us understand exactly what happened over the weekend of 18th and 19th December 2009 when the trains broke down in the tunnel,” they said.

“We are well advanced with our report but want to take advantage of the joint Review of the UK and French authorities which is taking place at the end of January.

“We expect therefore to publish our findings in the week commencing 8th February 2010. An exact date for publication will be announced in due course.”

Eurostar train picture by Flickr User ell brown

Eurostar saw only slight increases in sales and carryings last year, with leisure travellers helping to boost numbers. This marginal increase is still a reasonable success as the figures also include the period of disruption in Eurostar services over December when trains got stuck in the Channel Tunnel due to adverse weather conditions.

Eurostar apologised “unreservedly” for the problems that occurred in a recent letter. It explained that it has put in place a number of operational and communication improvements to ensure that its trains have greater resilience to extreme winter weather and it is better placed to look after its customers when disruptions do occur.

An independent review of the disruption will publish its findings at the end of the month. The review will focus on the causes of the disruption, contingency planning, the arrangements with Eurotunnel as well as the passenger care during the disruption and suspension of service.

An upturn in overall sales for 2009 meant that revenue for 2009 increased by 1.7%. This was boosted by strong leisure sales, up by 15.6% year-on-year.

“Whilst the economic environment remained challenging throughout the year, the second half of 2009 saw a ‘bottoming-out’ in the business market,” the company said.

 Eurostar has encountered yet more problems with cancellations due to problems with trains breaking down in the bad weather today.

 Services were halted today (7th January) after a train broke down in the tunnel this morning, echoing the series of failures last month that left over 40,000 passengers stranded. The 8:05am train from Brussels to London lost traction in the tunnel after encountering heavy snowfall in Northern France; it had to be towed by a rescue locomotive. Subsequent services were cancelled by Eurostar causing yet more chaos for affected passengers.

 Eurostar are warning of ‘restricted services’ up to and including Sunday 10th January, and have issued the same advice as that of the December incidents, which is to only travel if necessary, and to try to postpone your trip to a later date if possible.

Eurostar will run services tomorrow (Tuesday), the high-speed rail company has announced.  However, those who have tickets booked for tomorrow will be unable to travel until Wednesday as Eurostar have stated that those who had tickets booked on Saturday and Sunday of last week will take priority.

Tests on the trains have initially been successful so trains running on a restricted service will start at 7.30am tomorrow. Eurostar are still urging those whose journeys are “non-essential” not to travel in the next couple of days while they clear the backlog of passengers, but instead to change their tickets to a later date or to cancel them for a full refund.

A spokesperson said: “We now understand the cause of the disruption over the weekend and have identified the modifications that are required. We have already started making the modifications and to ensure that these new protection measures work effectively we are conducting a further series of test runs.

“Our priority is ensuring that when we resume services we provide our customers with a robust and reliable operation.”