Hovercraft.

The exciting days of the Dover to Calais hovercraft have now gone, replaced they say by the Channel tunnel rail link to France. But I think that this form of transport would still be viable. The hovercraft was much faster than the conventional ferry, because it skimmed over the Calais sands. 


Today we see that the RNLI have found value in smaller machines for rescue work on the sands off Avon and Somerset, while others work the Dee estuary between NE-Wales and the Whirral. 


Many military versions of the hovercraft were built in the former Soviet union. But alas another British invention seems to be put to the side lines, because of politics?

Trains. EMU/DMU.

Is this now the future for all passenger travels, or will the classic locomotive hauled trains continue?


There seems to be a varied selection of new and improved electrical and Diesel multiple unit models coming out year by year across many of the developed countries, but with each new type of rolling stock the ticket prices also continue to rise. 


I suppose also now with further tensions in the Middle-East and the Gulf (Iran) fuel prices will rocket. What will people do?

Buses, Coaches.

Even in the light of the recent coach crash in a Swiss road tunnel, very sad as it is. This is probably one of the most successful of human inventions. Buses are used world-wide and are to be found in all sorts of places cold and hot, wet and dry. Despite the many accidents that occur on mountain roads, they are still the best and cheapest way to travel from A to B. One of the latest inventions for the bus is the sliding side way Volvo coach. Much easier to park in urban environs, but still too expensive for many.  We today still have double decker's and now the bendy bus, love or hate it. but in eastern Europe there remains the trolley buses. What is the future I wonder in this century for the coach, bus?

Flying Boats. Part-One.

It does not look like our love of the flying boat is quite over yet. 

Russian Beriev Be-200, and Canadian Canadair CL-215/415 families and many other aircraft are capable of being fitted out with floats. These machines will continue to provide a good service in far flung places. The Be-200 is reported to be a good fire fighting machine and the Irkutsk factory has been able to offer several variants of this modern jet powered vehicle. 

But what new developments and concepts are for the future and what have we learned from what we have to what we can do.

Trams.

Are they worth their claims of improving metro systems or would buses just be good at doing the same job? 

Nearly every city and major town in the UK has a tram network of some kind. The question, should we have more of them or less? Is there the possibility of London having them again in the city center and what about trolley-buses and other forms of super metro/rail?

Costa Allegro.

In light of the sinking of one vessel, with the loss of 25 lives, another ship the Costa Allegro has had a fire and power failure in the Indian Ocean. 

What's wrong? This boat was not as big as the Concordia, but it broke down near to pirate waters north of the Seychelles. Perhaps the motto for cruises with this company should be 'adventures that could be fatal'.