Rail Travel news.

Today, on Friday, February, 8 we declare that the tourists for the last Ukrainian steam loco tour 16 - 23, February, 2008 is completely collected and the group is full. After all the changes  (refusals, returns, additional participants, as it is usually take place) we have all together 121 participants! For this tour we provide the train consisting of 13 cars: 1 passenger car for the staff,  8 passenger cars for tourists and 4 restaurant cars. For the time passed after publication on the site of the last news and  the most important information concerning the tour   some changes took place. The most important was the railway request connected with the technical reasons.

We will use not the cars of the Ukrainian production (779 serial) with 10 compartments for 20 persons but the ordinary German cars with 9 compartments for 18 persons. It is explained by technical reasons and mainly: the storage batteries of cars 779 serial which can be charged ONLY at the speed not less than  45 km/hour and higher while for the cars of the German production  the  speed of 20 - 25 km/hour  is enough to start the generators. Thus, taking into account that our speed with steam locos will be on the average of 30-35 km/hour we can be quiet as there will be always electricity in the train, rest rooms (which now not vacuum but of the ordinary construction) and we will be always able to charge batteries..

In this connection we partly changed the tourist accommodation in the train and the restaurants and as well  the basic instruction. Except that , only now we finally obtained information about every tourist and laid out on the site additional file where you can see the time of arrival to Kiev and leaving Kiev as well  the time table of our buses transfer to the Airport Borispol where we plan to meet our clients  and transfer to the airport for departure. In any case, we  CONVINCINGLY ASK YOU, before departure for Ukraine once again to visit our site and click here http://www.dzherelo.com.ua/en/last_steam_locos/documents  to read attentively the current information.

Many thanks to all the participants of the tour for your support and for your decision to see the Ukraine steam locos for the last time in operation with our train. For the moment our steam loco pass the last preparation and together with us expect your meeting in Ukraine. Welcome to our tour.

We would like to inform you that the preparation of our February tour successfully takes place and we are much obliged to all the partners, friends, colleagues who expressed their readiness to take part in our last steam loco Uraine tour in the period from 16 to 23 February 2008.
 
Now according to the situation on the 24th December 2007 we have 120 participants of this tour!
As in our last 13th car of our train we still have several empty places we proceed the clients collection for the extra few weeks. During the last month the small changes took place in the program on the request of our railway administration The itinerary on the line Stariy - Ivano-Frankovsk was sustituted with the line Kolomiya-Chertkov-Ternopol.
We welcome this substitution as this exactly line is more picturesque, with beautiful hils and many historic stations. And what is very important  - we can stop for runpasts on the tremendous bridge across the Dnester river. The total number of the steam locos is the same.

Nowdays we publish on our site the complete set of the information required:

- commemorative booklet for the tourists with all the details of meeting, the scheme of the train and all the details required in the tour
- the preliminay scheme of the clients accommodation aboard the train
- the detail program
- the time table of the train transfer with all the details
- the scheme of the place for meeting
- and even....the menu in the train restaurant-cars

All this information you can find here >>>
 http://www.dzherelo.com.ua/en/last_steam_locos/documents - English version
http://www.dzherelo.com.ua/de/dampflok-reisen/info - German version
 
Also we would like to inform you the HAPPY NEW YEAR NEWS. The great number of this tour participants helps us with their participation  to pay to all our company founders,  to share-holders of "DZHERELO SPK" and  as a result to SAFE THESE HISTORIC STEAM LOCOS !
Just now we start all the negotiations and prerare place for our steam locos on the special area of the railway museum  in the town of Donetsk, the great industrial centre in the east part of Ukraine. As a result THESE STEAM LOCOS WILL NOT BE CUT BUT SAFE  THEIR LIFE! It means they can be joined to the glory of the railway history  and  safed for the new ganeration of the steam loco enthusiasts.

We would like to wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR ! All the pleasures that this New Year can bring!

Look forward to hear for your decision.

 Every day we receive letters and good news from our friends and customers, who want participate the last Ukrainian steam loco tour in February. About two months came from the moment when we announced this trip and today we can say that this tour WILL GO for sure.

To operate this tour we need at least 35 pax. For today we already received 42 bookings from different countries. Among them:

Japan – 18 pers. ( from "OTANI" company and company "NTS" of Seya Sugavara)
Chech Republic – 3 pers. (from KHKD club lead by Yaroslav Krenek)
Great Britain – 12 pers (from Jim Colley "Easteuropian Railtours" and Bill  Alborough TEFS)
And also 9 private persons from USA, Germany, Austria, France and Poland. Totaly we expect 70-80 participants.

Also, we are looking for the news and additional participants from the another partners who advertise this journey. They are - Vsc Allen (UK), Ernst van Gulden and club  Paul Bosman - NVBS (Holland), Cristian Amman (Switzerland), Richard Coghlan, club WRS (UK), Winfried Raushkolb,  club DGEG (Германия)

All the hot news and latest information will be published here, on our website pages. A little bit late we plan to publish detailed list of participants to give you know your neighbour and fellow passengers in this GRAND FINALE steam loco tour.

If you have any questions or suggestions for this trip, please, don`t hesitate to contact us any time – mail us, Valentin info@tourua.com, or Galina rest@tourua.com or simply call us +380.44. 529.4033 (529.0121 fax machine also)

Just a few weeks ago our company Business Cooperation Centre "DZHERELO SPK" has decleared the last steam loco tour in February 2008. On the request of our constant clients we have explained the econonomic reasons for such a set decision. And just immediately, in a few days after this information has arrived in Internet, we began to receive numerouse replies of our old clients and our partners and clubs who actively participated in our tours in former years. The majority of our friends have already expressed their readiness to take part in this important event and  to say goodbye to the Ukraine steam locos which made us happy with their work all these years. We  really have sonething to remember due to the work of these HARD WORKERS- as we  have been side by side with them for ALL 17 YEARS !
 
For today we are ready to inform that we have already 28 enthusiasts who have booked places in this tour.

Among them we have our old friends from the Chehia Club  KHKD (Prague, Chehia) - 3 pax, OTANI (Japan) - 8 pax, the famouse tour operator from England Mr Bill Alborough - 5 pax. the famouse photograther Seiya Sigavara (Japan) with his firends - 8 pax. as  well as private enthusiasts from France, Poland, Great Britain - 6 pax.
 
As you remember the obligatory condition of this tour -  not less than 35 pax.
Watching the  great activity of our friends we can declare for sure that this tour will GO as except the advertising mentioned above the information about this tour was published by our competent colleagues of  many countries and exactly:
 
Vic Allen (UK)
Ernst Van Gulden (Holland)
Christian Amman (Switzerland)
James Colley ("East Europe Rail Tours", UK)
Paul Bosman (NVBS, Holland)
Paul Spracklen (PTG, UK) 

 All this made us optimistic and we can for sure declare  that this tour will TAKE PLACE . All together we expect 50-70 participants.
Follow the news on our site.  We'll regularly inform you the last events and the number of participants of this last tour.
Be side by side with us, check last information on our website.