European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 17, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday june 17, 1980 the stars and stripes Page 19 new York times he sign overhead reads fasten smartly uniformed hostesses hurry up and Down he aisle to see that everyone complies. aboard says another woman Over the intercom. Takeoff will be in just a minute or routine stuff to any plane traveler except that thesis no routine plane. It is the Cajet a 2fio-passenger hydrofoil made by the Boeing co. And it is about to slice across it English Channel to Brighton one of the world s heavily travelled lanes. It is the latest entrant in a raging Competition for tourist spending that makes All the lotteries and fare wars among the american airlines look like child s Niy. Passenger traffic across the Channel has boomed in the last few years despite inflation and the staggering increases i gasoline prices. About 16 million people crossed the Channel last , and most carriers Are predicting at least a 10 percent increase this year because of huge new Capac Ity and heavy promotions. Everyone in Britain it seems wants to gel to France and Many want to take their cars. As business has increased so his the Competition Selling off i heated if unofficial fart War. Some Rales Are lower and some higher this year but As one London travel agcy put it if it was t for the Competition the rates would be up substantially this at least one operator a new company called or Fer Ries for Dunke que Ramsgate is Frank about he Price War. I am going to be the Freddy Laker of the Channel boasts Ole Lauritzon the owner. Lauri zen s new ship As yet unnamed is scheduled to go into service next month with room for 1,250 Passen Gers and 170 cars each trip. Three round trips a Day Are scheduled at a Flat fee of $36 for any car plus $16 for each adult passenger and $8 for each child. The car Cost will go up to about $52 on Peak summer weekends. Usu Wilzen s fares if he holds to them Are something of a revolution on the Channel. Most of the other big carriers offer a mind numbing Jumble of prices depending on the time of the Day season of the year number of people and length of car. While most of the carriers claim they arc simplify ing their rate schedules his summer both French and British Irani agents say the fare structures Are worse than Loose of be airlines. One British agent who tried to put together his own guide ended up with 17 pages of material typed single space. Slicing across the Channel Boeing sea Jet the ship that making it All the More complicated has been a rash of Cut Rale deals intended la lure off season business. Townsend Thor san for example offered a special $40 10-Day round trip ticket for a car and Driver. In March icy offered an $80 10-Day round trip for a car and four people and in april they pushed a $100 five Day pack age for a car and two people. The sea Jet hydrofoil recently offered an evening flight from London to Paris for $30, Down from $44 for the Day flight while the be aspect hovercraft from Dover to Boulogne was pushing special same Day re turns 60-hour returns 72-hour returns and hotel room discounts Al the Channel ports. The Seawel is by far the most exotic Craft i ing the Waters of the mince As the French Call the Channel. Its portion of the business is tiny however. In ils first nine months of service april through december of last year it carried some 350,000 passengers making two round trips a Day. Some of the newer conventional ferry lines can carry that Many people a week. Lumbering old Cross Channel ships for generations the of Les norts of travellers with queasy innards have been replaced by sleek modern vessels capable of churning from Dover to Calais in less than an hour with 1,000 passengers and 350 cars. These big new ships five or six of them arc on order or in service plus the hydrofoils and the fright ening looking hovercraft have contrived to produce a great Deal of excess capacity. The fastest vessels on the route Are without a doubt the hydrofoil a ship that ride on skis and the hovercraft which uses huge fans to create bed of air Between it and the water on which it both arc less seaworthy than regular ships but they average around 60 Miles an hour. Hovercraft make the run Between Dover and Calais in about 40 minutes. Hydrofoils Are used Only on longer runs Dieppe to Brighton and London to Ostend Dieppe to Brighton is 110 minutes if the water is relatively Calm. But As a spokesman for Townsend Thor sen the big Gest of the private operators said it s the tremendous capacity of the new ships that s got everyone sealing sea Speed which operates conventional drive on drive off ships and hovercraft has the most routes and is a consortium thai includes the state owned French and British railroads. Others jumping into the game include the venerable Pacific and Orient lines and Brittany ferries originally founded by French Farmers to bring their produce to Britain France s by Frank j. Prial new York times rom the air it looks like a straight White scar across the French Countryside. From the ground it looks like the kind of Highway Hucy Long used to build across Louisiana straight As a die. It is not a Highway but the right of Way for the Iso mile an hour Tiv. The train de Grande Viesse France s train of the future. Lean and Low the Orange and Black Tiv resembles a colourful Arrow As it streaks along its test track near Strasbourg. Wherever in slops on test trips it draws admiring crowds. For several months the French National Railroad has been inviting the Public aboard the train for the test runs but Only at the Speed of regular trains a trip from Paris to Dijon and Buck on a recent sat urday was typical. The train left the care de Lyon in Paris at 9 . Everyone was Given a drink and a Long questionnaire. The Tiv pulled into Dijon 2 hours and 18 minutes later right on Lime. Three and a half hours later a respectable interval for a decent burgundian lunch it zipped Back to Pat is. Service is expected to begin Between Paris and Lyon i october 1981 and As one Happy passenger said during the Dijon trip train Riding in France will never be the same it certainly will not be on the new trains. Consider Paris la Dijan now 2 hours and 18 minutes will be i hour and 37 minutes Paris to Lyon now 3 hours and 44 minutes will be exactly 2 hours. By 1983, when the line is completed Marseilles now almost 7 hours by the fastest train from Paris will be 4 hours and 43 minutes. Eventually Geneva will be 3 hours and 30 minutes and Lausanne 3 hours and 40 official of air inter the government operated Domestic airline said recently thai the Tiv would Cut in half his traffic Between Paris and Lyon the most heavily travelled time Between he iwo cities is less than an hour but with frequent traffic delays most regular travellers allow themselves about four hours. No fares have been posted bul icy arc expected to be somewhere Between the air Rales and those on special trains such As inc mistral and the Aquitaine. Comparisons with planes Are inevitable. Meals will be so cd at a passenger s Seal there is a fold Down High Speed test Model during Railroad station Stopover at Gare de Lyon in Paris. Tray on inc Back of the scat ahead. Drinks arc to be dispensed from Carls identical to those used on com Mercial planes. What is different is the space in both first and second class with the trains offering far More than the planes. A first class car holds Only 38 passengers there arc 60 in a second class car. A full eight car train will Lake Only 111 passengers in first class and 275 in second fewer Man a Boeing 747. High Speed trains Are not new. American trains pulled by steam locomotives regularly exceeded 100 Miles an hour on Good tracks at inc end of inc 19th Century. Trains such As the Aquitaine Between Bordeaux and Paris routinely average 100 Miles an hour. Many coun tries have experimented with High Speed rail systems but Only the japanese have produced a truly High Speed train that is a commercial almost every other Case successful High Speed technology has been blocked by Lack of a suitable right of Way. There Are just too Many curves in the track to be Able to go very French have solved that problem by building a whole new Railroad More or less parallel to the old one Between Paris and the a Point a few Miles South of Paris where the new line diverges from the old. To a Point eight Miles North of Lyon inc Tiv trains will use a right of Way just for them. More than half finished now the right of Way has special ballast special rails and. Of course few curves. The idea for a High Speed train Dales Back to 1966 in France. The present plan was approved by the government in 1971. The prototype was powered by a Gas Turbine for a while bul electricity was chosen As the most practical. The eight car trains in experimental use arc under going technical Lett on the track near Strasbourg and being subjected to consumer scrutiny on runs like the recent one to Dijon. Current contracts Call for 85 eight car trains to be delivered by inc end of 1982. They will be used on exist ing routes across Southeastern France taking advantage of the new High Speed track for parts of each trip then switching to the older tracks
