Professional discussions in our November issue are concerned with the questions of transport. Transport is an essential part of any journey – one might argue that only advancers in transport technologies allowed tourism to become an everyday reality for millions in the 20th century. We have decided to observe some issues regarding one of the “patriarch” means of transport – rail roads in Europe. We introduce the Railteam alliance which will offer travellers high-speed and hopefully high-quality travel across European borders. Two articles discuss some implications of a simple “change of harbor” for one the main service providers: Eurostar has announced cross-Channel rail services move from London Waterloo to St Pancras.
Helicopters as new and successfully expanding way of transportation and sightseeing represents our second topic in this section. How passengers perceive such trips - as a service conveniently linking distant palaces or as an attraction of its own? Reports from different parts of the world show that, whatever is the answer, this type of travel services is rapidly growing. There are even claims that such tourism can destroy natural reserves by constant "Ride of the Valkyries”. Shall the air remain the dominion of the birds as it used to be when Sikorsky had not yet invented his helicopter?