Deck

THE Eurostar is getting a major upgrade with up to 50 new double-decker trains.

Eurostar has revealed a €2billion (£1.7billion) investment in double-decker trains that would become the first ever to operate through the Channel Tunnel and on the UK network.

So far, the operator has confirmed it will have 30 double-decker trains, but could add a further 20 in the future.

The new fleet, built by the Alstom Group, will be called Eurostar Celestia.

The trains will each measure 200 metres long, and will be used across the five countries Eurostar currently operates in – the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.

They are also set to be used for new destinations such as Geneva in Switzerland and Frankfurt in Germany.

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On board each train, there will be around 540 seats – a 20 per cent increase compared to the number of seats on the Eurostar’s current trains.

Though if running in a 400 metre formation, as trains do currently through the Channel Tunnel, then there will be around 1,080 seats per service.

According to the operator, Eurostar Celestia will also have a “bespoke design to capture the unique, premium experience Eurostar customers expect”.

The name of the new fleet was decided by Eurostar staff and is derived from the Latin word ‘caelestis’, which means ‘heavenly’.

“It evokes the stars and the essence of travel, perfectly capturing the spirit of a company that links a constellation of cities across Europe,” Eurostar added.

The decision follows Eurostar’s aim of handling 30million passengers each year in the future.

The first trains are expected to join Eurostar’s fleet in January 2031, with services launching in May 2031.

The operator plans to launch six trains initially, which will run alongside Eurostar’s current fleet of 17 e320s.

In total, the fleet will grow to 67 trains – 30 per cent more than runs today.

The entire fleet would also be maintained at the Temple Mills depot in London, which would undergo an €80million (£69.6million) redevelopment to create space for the new trains.

In addition, 350 new jobs would be created at the depot.

The trains will be an all-electric fleet too, making them more sustainable.

Gwendoline Cazenave, CEO, Eurostar said: “We’re particularly proud to bring double-decker trains to the UK for the very first time.

“Customers can expect a very special new train with Eurostar Celestia, which will offer exceptional comfort, a unique Eurostar experience and new surprises to be revealed.

“This is a golden age for international sustainable travel – and Eurostar is leading the race.”

Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO of Alstom, said: “This new-generation train, designed to meet the demands of international very high-speed traffic, embodies our vision of sustainable and competitive European mobility.”

The announcement comes as the Office of Rail and Road is set to meet on October 31 to make a decision on whether space should be created for a competitor operator at Temple Mills, such as Virgin or Gemini.

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Recently, Virgin also announced that if it were to get approval to run cross-channel services, it would launch routes from two huge cities in the north.

And in other train news, the UK capital is set to welcome new £700million train line linking west and north of the city.

Sept. 9 (UPI) — A Miami area condo was showing visible signs of structural strains weeks before it collapsed and killed 98 people, federal investigators revealed Tuesday.

The update from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) comes four years after the catastrophic collapse of the Champlain Towers building in Surfside, Fla. The incident drew national headlines, leaving questions about what caused the 12-story building to suddenly fall apart.

NIST investigators determined that the collapse likely started in the building’s pool deck instead of the structure of the tower, aligning with preliminary findings into the cause of the incident. Co-lead investigator Glenn Bell said that “it is more likely that the failure started in a pool deck slab-column connection,” according to a news release.

Investigators used computer simulations, large-scale structural testing and signs that the building was in distress weeks before the collapse, according to the release. Those signs included a sliding glass door that had come off its frame, a horizontal crack in a planter wall and a vertical gate shifting so much that it became jammed and could not be opened.

The signs of distress were concentrated in a small area of the pool deck and the street-level parking lot, both of which began to give way at least seven minutes before the rest of the tower collapsed, the release stated. Additionally, a leak in part of the garage ceiling that was cracked had undergone many repairs and became significantly worse a day before the collapse, investigators found.

Investigators are fine-tuning their analysis of the role steel reinforcement corrosion, concrete shrinkage and shoddy construction joints in the pool deck slab had in the collapse. They intend to complete their technical work by the end of the year and draft reports on their findings. A significant update on the investigation is expected by spring 2026.

Previously, Surfside Mayor Charles W. Burkett suggested a sinkhole caused the collapse. Lawyers for victims also argued that construction on a neighboring luxury building destabilized the condos.

The collapse destroyed 55 condominium units and left the remaining 136 units to be demolished. In 202, a Miami Judge approved a $1 billion settlement to surviving family members, condo owners and people injured.

Are we in for a new age of scripted basic cable television? Given the successes of the old age, which threaded its way between broadcast and premium cable TV, a little bolder than the former, less pricier than the latter, making up what it lacked in resources with invention and charm — producing such shows as “The Detour,” “Halt and Catch Fire,” “Lodge 49” and “The Closer,” to name just a few of my favorites — I’d be all for it.

Premiering Friday on the USA Network, lately devoted to sports, reality shows and reruns, the legal drama “The Rainmaker” is the first fruit of an intentional return to the network’s self-styled “blue sky” era, when its slogan was “Characters Welcome” and “optimism” in storytelling was a stated goal. “Psych,” “In Plain Sight,” “Monk” and “Suits” — whose recent success after being recycled onto Netflix would seem to be a factor in this turnaround — were among the series born in that period.

Based on John Grisham’s 1995 novel, faithfully adapted by Francis Ford Coppola into a 1997 film starring Matt Damon and Claire Danes, the TV “Rainmaker” has been kitted out with some new and altered characters and a novel focus, and in order to keep you on the hook across 10 episodes, it stirs in a case of arson and a serial murderer. (And surely some additional complications — only five episodes out of 10 were available for review, so even though I wouldn’t tell you about what’s coming later, I couldn’t.) Serial killer notwithstanding — nothing drearier than a serial killer — the nuts and bolts and girders and panels of a USA show are here — colorful characters, one part comedy to one part drama, a mystery to solve, and just a tiny bit of sex. (This is basic cable, remember.)

We meet hot-headed good guy Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) and his cheery girlfriend Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman), both not long out of law school, both yet to take the bar exam, at a legal-aid event, providing free advice to the sort of people who could never afford a lawyer, wouldn’t know where to start or maybe just want someone to listen to their stories. They meet Dot Black (Karen Bryson), who is very much not over the death of her son while in a hospital whose name I can’t recall but for my own convenience will just call Bad Hospital. Badspital. That the hospital — the Badspital — has offered her $50,000 while their motion to dismiss is still pending, sets Rudy to wondering what they might be trying to hide. Anyway, Dot, whom we’ll see again, finds the offer insulting and also needs an apology.

Rudy and Sarah have both been hired by the 800-pound gorilla law firm Tinley Britt. On their first day, he arrives late to work — and bloody, having gotten into a fight with his mother’s shiftless, but large, boyfriend. He proceeds to get into another fight, abstractly, with senior partner Leo F. Drummond (John Slattery), who fires him. (In the novel, Rudy is merely laid off in a merger — not so dramatic!) Moaning to friend and bar-owning sometime boss Prince Thomas (Tommie Earl Jenkins) that he’s been turned down by every other respectable firm in town, Thomas suggests “a not so respectable one.”

John Slattery stars as Leo Drummond, a senior partner at Tinley Britt, the law firm where Rudy is hired and subsequently fired.

(Christopher Barr/USA Network)

Here things depart significantly from the text, and the fun begins.

Rudy is delivered to the law offices of glamorous Jocelyn “Bruiser” Stone (Lana Parrilla) and associates, located in a partly converted Mexican restaurant — though past the receptionist the only associate in sight is “paralawyer” Deck Shifflet (P.J. Byrne). A purely comic character, Deck has failed the bar seven times but has many useful skills and qualities, not least a flexible sense of professional ethics. He insists on calling Rudy “Boo Boo.” It takes him a minute to realize it, but Rudy has found his people.

Gender flipped from the novel’s J. Lyman Stone, Bruiser (when not in court) favors animal prints, plunging necklines and short skirts. “I only need three things,” she says. “Kentucky bourbon, a bloody steak and a man who won’t spend the night.” You get the picture.

But there’s more to her than that. When Rudy, who has been with Deck trolling the Badspital for clients, suggests he wasn’t cut out to be an “ambulance chaser,” she also has this to say.

“You know where the term ambulance chaser came from? It was used by white shoe firms in the ’20s to crap on any lawyer that wasn’t a member of their club. When the contingency-fee law was enacted, small firms rose up full of attorneys who were just like their clients, the ones on the Statue of Liberty, the tired, poor, the huddled masses — those same people are our clients now, and if you think you’re better than them, you’re not. You are them.”

It’s good to know someone still takes Emma Lazarus seriously.

Among the figures Rudy and Deck encounter at the hospital, or the Badspit — oh, never mind — is Melvin Pritcher (Dan Fogler), whom we have seen in the series’ opening scene, escaping a house fire that kills his mother. There are several things to say about him that probably constitute spoilers, so I’ll just note that though Melvin is quite unpleasant, Fogler is very good.

With Sarah working for the Empire and Rudy embedded with the rebels, their relationship has been engineered by the writers to be problematic, possibly to break down — though each does seem to be trying. (They’re good kids.) She’s got a trust fund; he’s doesn’t own a suit of his own, dressing rather in one passed down from a dead brother. They’ll wind up in court opposite one another like Tracy and Hepburn in “Adam’s Rib,” for Tinley Britt is defending the hospital from Dot, who has become a client of Bruiser’s firm. Their future together is also potentially complicated by Kelly Riker (Robyn Cara), a woman who lives in Rudy’s building who is obviously being abused, and Drummond’s smarmy lieutenant Brad Noonan (Wade Briggs) — of course he’d be named Brad — who has been assigned to weaponize Sarah against Rudy.

Callaghan gives off a scintilla of Matt Damon vibes, but is his own Rudy, keeping his naive idealist free from leading-man tics. Parrilla finds the balance between Bruiser’s sauciness and seriousness; Byrne plays the clown adeptly; and Slattery, a boss again after “Mad Men,” softens his villainy with some Roger Sterling insouciance.

Developed by Michael Seitzman and Jason Richman, it’s a very watchable show — serial killer passages notwithstanding. There’s nothing fancy in the execution — it’s the opposite of stylish — but everything’s clearly defined and dialed up a step past normal into that space we call entertainment. Welcome back to the blue sky.

A travel expert has shed fresh light on what goes on below deck of commercial cruise ships – including what happens when passengers die onboard and the cryptic codes shared on the PA system

Netflix’s new documentary Trainwreck: The Poop Cruise has caused quite the commotion, leaving many curious about the inner workings of mega cruises. One travel expert has the answers, sharing insider secrets of life below deck. Global Work & Travel ’s Jessie Chambers shares five of the most surprising secrets from the cruise world, including onboard jails and morgues.

She also unpacks common codes blasted over the PA system. According to Chambers, most cruise ships have a brig which is essentially a “secure jail-like room” to detain unruly or dangerous passengers. The brig houses these passengers until they can be removed at the next port.

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Cruise ships also have a place to house deceased passengers. Given that some cruises have an older average passenger age, it isn’t altogether uncommon for deaths to occur onboard. For this reason, most cruise liners are equipped with morgues that can hold multiple bodies until the ship reaches land.

In rare cases, families can potentially request burials at sea – a practice that still exists under strict regulation. According to Chambers, some passengers even pre-plan their final voyage, ashes included.

When it comes to the code system used by staff, Chambers explains that these are used to signal emergencies. Cruise staff are trained to use discreet codes (i.e. “Code Oscar” or “Code Alpha”) to flag medical incidents, man overboard alerts, or even biohazard events like mass vomiting.

Chambers’ last insider secret is that not all ports will welcome all passengers, even if they have paid already. She says that if your cruise ship has a health issue onboard or if weather turns, your port stop can be cancelled.

If this happens, passengers can be left with no recourse or compensation. She says this has happened frequently in the post-COVID era.

Despite some of the less glamorous aspects and potential dangers, Chambers says cruises are still a great way to travel. “Cruises are brilliant fun – but they’re also floating cities, and that means everything from crime to chaos has to be accounted for.

“The Trainwreck: Poop Cruise documentary might seem extreme, but outbreaks, delays, even onboard arrests are all part of the behind-the-scenes reality. It’s important travellers know what they’re signing up for – not to scare them, but to empower them,” she concludes.

That said, there are some passengers of the infamous cruise that argue that the documentary “doesn’t even scratch the surface” of how horrific the experience was.

The cruise voyage from Texas to Mexico descended into chaos after an engine room fire caused a massive electrical failure, leaving over 4,000 passengers and crew to wade through urine and feces and camp on deck.

Tay Redford, 24, a passenger who was only 12 at the time of the incident, says she felt “hurt” by the portrayal after watching the trailer. Tay vividly recalls the fear and chaos, arguing that Carnival failed to provide meaningful support after the ordeal.

“I’ve only seen the trailer, but from what I saw, it doesn’t even scratch the surface,” she said. “It’s just Carnival workers telling the story. It’s really hard watching the documentary come out and seeing all these people making money from it.