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Hello, it's Tuesday the 5th of October.

And thanks for joining me, Simon Simon Calder for the latest on travel

and destinations from the Greenlist and the travel desk of the Independent. Today the UK's new

high-speed rail route may lose its eastern promise. Flying in Europe, the UK remains way down

in flights compared with two years ago.

And Australia's Prime Minister is in no rush to welcome back international visitors.

Of course, this podcast is completely free, as is my weekly travel email.

Do feel free to sign up any time.co.com.uk forward slash

newsletters. You are probably familiar with high speed two. Just a reminder, of course, that

high speed one is the rail link that goes from London, St. Pancras International to Ashford and Folkestone in Kent,

where it disappears into the Channel Tunnel.

The only truly high-speed rail line in the UK.

But we're building another one called HS2, and is going to run says the organisers from London to

Birmingham at that point it's going to split into a kind of Y formation the left-hand side

going west will head up to crew and to Manchester and the right-hand side meanwhile meanwhile, goes to, well, a number of destinations, not particularly

well-served by rail.

That's Nottingham, it's Sheffield, and finally to Leeds, which does have a reasonable

...