High-tech undersea tunnel to link Germany and Denmark

As someone who lives in Tasmania, where progress in building infrastructure is glacial, at best, I was stunned by news this week from Germany and Denmark.

Work began last month on the first tunnel element of the new Fehmarnbelt Tunnel between Denmark and Germany, which, once completed, will be the world's longest underwater road and rail tunnel.

The 18km tunnel between southern Denmark and northern Germany will slash travel times between the two nations, replacing a 45-minute ferry ride across the Baltic Sea with a seven-minute train ride or 10-minute car journey.

But here is the kicker: The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel is expected to open in 2029. That's just five years. Where I live it takes longer than that to complete a couple of kilometres of above-ground urban bypass.

The tunnel will be a major connection between central Europe and Scandinavia and the electrified high-speed rail line will support speeds of 200 km/h.

It will shorten the rail journey from Hamburg to Copenhagen from the current four hours and 40 minutes to two hours and 30 minutes.

The underwater link will be built across the Fehmarn Belt, a Baltic Sea strait between the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland.

It will be financed by state-guaranteed loans, which will be paid by road and train tolls.

Image: Fermen A/S 

Chocolates all round for Qantas passengers over Easter

It is one of those times of the year when experienced flyers opt to stay at home.

Flights are chock-a-block and airports are at capacity.

Qantas and Jetstar are gearing up for almost four million customers to travel across domestic and international networks on almost 36,000 flights throughout Easter and the four-week school holiday period.

More than 670,000 customers are expected to be travelling over the Easter long weekend alone on the two Qantas Group carriers, an increase of almost 10% on the 2023 Easter holidays.

Easter Thursday (that's tomorrow folks) is the single busiest day, with more than 150,000 customers travelling across the group.

Popular destinations for holidaymakers include Auckland, Singapore, Bali and Tokyo as well as Gold Coast, Hobart and Cairns.

A number of additional measures across the Qantas Group will be in place over the holidays including up to 15 Qantas and Jetstar aircraft on standby as "operational spares" providing an extra buffer in the event of disruptions.

The Group is also working with industry partners to have extra staff available including additional ground handlers on standby and airport security screeners, while Qantas Engineering has set up a dedicated maintenance teams to increase maintenance activity on its aircraft.

From Easter Friday until Easter Monday, customers travelling across the Qantas network can expect a number of Easter surprises including chocolates for customers at Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane domestic airports.

On Jetstar, customers will be treated to bunny ear headbands and Easter colouring packs and pencils for travelling kids

Fingers crossed for all concerned.

Australian workers beware: logistics company under fire

DP World is a United Arab Emirates multinational logistics company based in Dubai.

It specialises in cargo logistics, port terminal operations, maritime services and free trade zones.

In Australia it operates container terminals at DP World Brisbane, DP World Fremantle, DP World Melbourne, and DP World Sydney.

So what?

Well, DP World is also involved in the travel industry and is under fire for its unconscionable behaviour in the UK this week.

Ministers and trade unions have condemned P&O Ferries mass sacking of 800 British seafarers to replace them with scab labour as shameful and “completely unacceptable”, The Guardian reported.

P&O Ferries’ services could be suspended for up to 10 days, disrupting its cross-Channel and Irish Sea routes, after the operator sacked its entire British seafaring staff without notice.

Workers learned the news of their redundancy via a pre-recorded video message.

Staff were told by P&O to disembark passengers and freight before being sent a video message telling them P&O “vessels will be primarily crewed by a third-party crew provider … Your final day of employment is today.”

Scumbag behaviour.

Long-serving crew were removed from ships by security guards in Dover, Kent, and in Larne, near Belfast.

Replacement agency workers (who should hang their heads in shame) had already boarded some vessels in Dover on Thursday afternoon.

Legal experts have raised questions about whether employment laws had been breached. - bit clearly  union workers will plan to black ban the company and its Dubai owners.

“The way these workers were informed was completely unacceptable," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "Clearly the way that this was communicated to staff was not right and we have made that clear.”

But Johnson, like Australia's own Prime Minister for Promises, is renowned for talking a lot but doing very little.

The RMT union’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, said his organisation was seeking urgent legal action over “one of the most shameful acts in the history of British industrial relations”.

DP World is owned by Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund.