Grand Canyon rail plan aims at cutting traffic

Phoenix — Grand Canyon Railway has proposed creating a $186 million high-speed light rail line aimed at easing traffic congestion along the South Rim.

The railway currently runs daily tours from Williams to Grand Canyon Village.

Railway leaders said that under the proposal, high-speed rail service could begin in 2005 from Williams to the canyon and reduce the South Rim’s vehicle traffic by 50 percent.

Grand Canyon Supt. Joseph Alston said the Railway’s proposal was one of six that would be considered by the U.S. Park Service. The aim is to get visitors to leave their cars outside the park’s boundaries.

The Park Service has been mandated by Congress to reduce noise at the Grand Canyon.

According to the proposal, the Williams-to-Grand Canyon rail line would run for 62 miles and would take an hour and 18 minutes one-way. The project’s second phase, to begin in 2013, would build a six-mile rail spur from Tusayan to the visitor’s center near Mather Point.

Concordes find new homes in museums

Seattle — Seattle’s Museum of Flight will receive one of seven Concorde supersonic jetliners that have been retired by British Airways.

The other planes will go to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York; Grantley Adams Airport in Bridgetown, Barbados; the headquarters of Airbus U.K. in Filton, southwest England; the Museum of Flight in Scotland; Manchester Airport in England, and the planes’ home base of Heathrow airport near London.

Although some had wished at least some of the sleek aircraft could be kept flying, British Airways chief executive Rod Eddington said a study had shown that “the technical and financial challenges of keeping a Concorde airworthy are absolutely prohibitive.”

The airline rejected some of the more colorful suggestions, including turning one of the needle-nosed planes into a restaurant.

Air France grounded its five Concordes in May. One has gone to the new branch of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.