China has announced the completion of the first railway line from Golmud in China's north-western province of Qinghai to Lhasa, in Tibet. The line is expected to start taking passengers in 2006. This is one of the world's highest train routes, at 5,072m (16,640ft) above sea level. Trains travelling on the line will have to have carriages that are sealed like aircraft to protect passengers from altitude sickness. The workers who built the line had to breathe bottled oxygen in order to deal with the high altitudes.

At September's World Tourism Day, the the United Nations Today said that more and more people can afford to travel. In 1950 it was 20 million, last year 760 million, and by 2020 it is expected that the number of international travellers will exceed 1.6 billion a year.

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Transparency International recently published its new index on the world's most countries. At the top of the list, i.e. the least corrupt country is Iceland, followed by Finland and New Zealand in joint second place, Denmark in fourth place and Singapore in fifth place. In sixth to tenth position are Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, and Austria respectively.

Lying at the bottom of the league in joint 158th position is Bangladesh and Chad, in joint 155th place are Haiti, Myanmar and Turkmenistan, in joint 152nd position are Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. Angola comes in at no 151 and there are seven countries at joint 144 th position: the DRC, Kenya, Pakistan, Paraguay, Somalia, Sudan and Tajikistan.

Skytrax have conducted the world's “largest” passenger survey, was conducted over an 11 month period (June 2004 – May 2005) to find the world's Airline of the Year. The results are as follows:

AIRLINE OF THE YEAR 2005

1. Cathay Pacific
2. Qantas Airways
3. Emirates
4. Singapore Airlines
5. British Airways
6. Malaysia Airlines
7. Thai Airways

Beetle: I don't see Ryanair in this list.

The Chief Executive Tony Davis of Singapore based low-cost airline Tiger Airways said that they want to be the Ryanair of Asia. Tiger Airways flies from Singapore to Macau, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, competing with Malaysia's AirAsia and a partnership of Valueair Ltd and Qantas Airways associate Jetstar Asia. Tiger is 49 per cent owned by Singapore Airlines.

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has collected $10m in deposits from people wanting a quick journey beyond Earth's atmosphere. More than 34,000 would-be astronauts have registered for rides aboard a commercial version of the experimental Ansari X Prize winner SpaceShipOne. If you are wondering about how much this may cost – BBC reports say that between four to five minutes of weightlessness will set you back around $200,000 (£113,242). Test flights are on schedule to begin in 2007, with commercial operations to begin a year later.

The spaceships will be about the size of a Gulfstream Five business jet and like SpaceShipOne, will be attached to a larger airplane before its rocket engines ignite to travel beyond the atmosphere. The joyrides are being designed so that passengers should be able to witness views of Earth-in-the-round. The seating compartments on SpaceShipTwo are being designed so that passengers can float around weightless while still connected to their seats.

Hong Kong International Airport is named Best Airport worldwide in 2005 passenger survey. For the 5th consecutive year, passengers have rated Hong Kong International Airport as the world's Best Airport. Singapore Changi Airport takes the Silver Award, rated 2nd in the world.

Terminal 5, whose sole tenant is British Airways is due to open on Sunday, 30 March 2008. The £4.2bn project is intended to bring some … to your transit. Never mind the passenger experience; your baggage will have a first-class journey. Amazingly, Terminal 5 is said to be Europe's biggest construction project.

About a dozen people have been killed by salt-water crocodiles in Australia in the past 20 years. Now divers in northern Australia are calling for development of crocodile warning devices following two recent crocodile attacks. The numbers of crocodiles have increased rapidly in recent years, due to a ban on hunting passed in the 1970s. The deaths have also reopened debate as to whether limited limited hunting should resume. The salt-water crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is the largest living reptile in terms of mass. There is a large population in Australia, with the majority being in the Northern Territory.