China sticks to Tibet luxury train project

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — China still aims to launch "the most luxurious train in the world" from Beijing to Tibet despite riots that broke out in the Himalayan region this spring, railway officials said Thursday.

"The plan hasn't been cancelled," said an official at the Railway Ministry who declined to be named.

State-run Xinhua news agency reported in early March, just days before deadly riots broke out in Tibet, that the train would go into service on September 1.

But an official at the Qinghai Tibet Railway Company, who also asked to remain anonymous, told AFP Thursday there was no timetable yet for the train's maiden voyage.

Xinhua said earlier a ticket of the 96-seat train, decorated "according to the standards of a five-star hotel", would cost about...