Features

RETOSACHI, Mexico — Romayne Wheeler sits at his grand piano overlooking Mexico’s Copper Canyon and plays music inspired by the mountains and remote Indigenous communities that he now dedicates his life to helping.

The 81-year-old California-born composer no longer lives in the cave where he slept with his solar-powered portable piano after arriving several decades ago in the Sierra Tarahumara in north-western Mexico.

But he feels as close as ever to the nature and Indigenous Raramuri people who welcomed him into their lives, sharing their food, music and culture.

“I feel truly that all of this area around me is my studio,” Wheeler told AFP in his stone house perched on the canyon’s edge, several hours from the nearest significant town along winding mountain tracks.

“Every tree, every plant, every flower — everything here has something to tell me,” he said.

Wheeler’s love affair with the Sierra Tarahumara began in 1980 when he was in the United States studying Indigenous music and a snowstorm made it impossible to travel to a Native American reservation near the Grand Canyon.

Leafing through a copy of National Geographic magazine, he came across pictures of the remote Mexican region and decided to see it for himself.

“It was like coming home,” he recalled, wearing the Indigenous-style shirt and traditional sandals that he now prefers to Western attire.

“The people that are most revered here are the musicians. They stand in high honour like the shamans,” he said.

The mountainous corner of Chihuahua state is part of the notorious “Golden Triangle”, a region with a history of marijuana and opium poppy production as well as drug cartel violence.

Wheeler identified so much with the philosophy of the Raramuri — also known as Tarahumara — that he came back for several weeks each year before settling there permanently in 1992.

They were “people who shared everything they had, who considered the person that is of most value is the one that helps others the most, and contributed something positive to humanity”, he said.

When he first arrived, the Raramuri — whose name means “light-footed ones” and who are renowned for their running stamina — showed Wheeler a small cave where he could practice and keep his electric piano dry.

“My friends said sometimes with the wind just right they could hear my little tiny instrument all the way across the canyon,” he remembered.

One young child, a neighbour’s son, showed particular interest, so Wheeler taught him to play and sent him to study in the Chihuahua state capital.

Now Romeyno Gutierrez, his protégé, is an acclaimed pianist in his own right who performs abroad and accompanied Wheeler on two tours of Europe.

“He’s the first pianist and composer of Indian heritage that I know of on our continent,” Wheeler said proudly.

Bringing his 1917 Steinway grand piano to the village of Retosachi was almost as much of an odyssey as Wheeler’s own.

The dream to put a piano on a mountaintop was born in Austria where Wheeler, a keen mountaineer, studied and lived for 32 years, but where harsh winters made it impossible.

In Mexico, he hired a professional moving company to bring the fragile musical instrument from the western city of Guadalajara as far as it could into the mountains.

It then took 28 hours to reach Wheeler’s home by truck along dirt mountain roads with the piano laid on its side, supported by piles of potatoes, he said.

“We went at a walking rhythm for most of the way because of all the potholes,” he added.

Despite the remoteness of his home, affectionately named Eagle’s Nest, visits from his neighbours and the company of his dogs mean that Wheeler never feels alone.

“I feel more lonely in the city because of all the people around that have nothing to say to each other,” he said.

He has 42 godsons in the area, one of the poorest in Mexico, where limited access to clean water, sufficient food and healthcare pose major challenges to communities that rely mostly on subsistence agriculture.

In the early 1990s, Wheeler decided to use proceeds from the concerts he performs around the world to establish a school, a clinic and a scholarship programme.

“They’re very good people. They help a lot,” said one of his neighbours, Gerardo Gutierrez, who was a child when he first met Wheeler.

“They gave away blankets when it was very cold. And sometimes they got groceries for the people here,” the 49-year-old added.

Giving back to the community has also given Wheeler a deeper sense of purpose.

“These years have been the most happy years of my life really because I feel like my music is doing something of value to help humanity,” he said.

HONG KONG — Hong Kong businessman W. Wong still remembers the day in 1972 when he first heard neighbourhood kids rave about a figure who seemed larger than life: Bruce Lee. 

Lee, a consummate martial artist whose films spawned a kung fu craze around the world, was one of the first Asian men to achieve Hollywood superstardom before his death at 32. 

His influence can still be felt in Hong Kong, where he spent his childhood and final years, as fans held exhibitions and martial arts workshops to mark the 50th anniversary of Lee’s death. 

“Every child needs some kind of role model, and I chose Bruce Lee,” said Wong, 54, who has led the city’s largest fan club devoted to the star for nearly three decades.

“I had hoped my life would resemble the Bruce Lee I saw: handsome, strong, with great martial arts skills and a heroic image.”

At a studio for Wing Chun — a style of martial arts Lee practised before inventing his own Jeet Kune Do method — the martial arts master is revered as something akin to a patron saint.

Studio owner Cheng Chi-ping, 69, told AFP his cohort began their training under the shadow of Lee’s cultural influence but “we could never match his speed, strength or physique”. 

Lee’s appeal had not diminished for the next generation, said Mic Leung, 45, who trained at the same studio and, as a teenager, sought out Lee’s movies on old videotapes. 

“When we talk about the ‘god of martial arts’, we could only be talking about Bruce Lee. There is no one else,” he said.

Born in San Francisco in 1940, Lee was raised in Hong Kong and had an early brush with fame as a child actor, supported by his father, who was a famous Cantonese opera singer.

At 18, he continued his studies in the United States and over the next decade taught martial arts and scored minor parts in Hollywood, before landing the role of Kato in the television series “The Green Hornet”.

But it was not until Lee returned to Hong Kong that he landed his first lead role in the martial arts film “The Big Boss”, which made him a household name in Asia after its 1971 release.

The next year saw two more box office hits — “Fist of Fury” and “The Way of the Dragon” — cementing Lee’s persona as a relentless, lightning-fast fighter.

Lee had completed filming his fourth star vehicle, “Enter the Dragon”, and was halfway through his fifth when he died on July 20, 1973 from swelling of the brain, attributed to an adverse reaction to painkillers.

Film scholar Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park, who taught Lee’s movies at the University of Hong Kong, said Lee expressed a kind of Chinese identity that transcended national borders.

“I would call Bruce Lee a paragon of Sinophone soft power success with Hong Kong characteristics,” he told AFP.

In Hollywood, Lee represented a rebuke to racist stereotypes, showing that Asian men were more than just servants and villains.

The scenes where he bares his torso and flexes his muscles — what Magnan-Park called the “kung fu striptease” — were essential because they show how ripped bodies can belong to Asian heroes as well.

“He made Asian men sexy, and that is something I don’t think we talk about enough,” he said.

Despite Lee’s enduring fame, preserving his legacy in Hong Kong was no easy task, fan club chairman Wong told AFP. Government support was intermittent at best, he said.

Fans in 2004 successfully petitioned to set up a bronze statue of Lee on Hong Kong’s famed waterfront, but a campaign to revitalise his former mansion could not save it from demolition in 2019.

At a government-run museum exhibit commemorating Lee’s life, a woman surnamed Yip told AFP she wanted to share “a symbol of the old Hong Kong” with her two children.

Wong, who had organised a smaller exhibit in Sham Shui Po district, acknowledged a decline of interest among young people but said Lee’s philosophy always has the potential to become relevant again. 

He pointed to how protesters in Hong Kong’s 2019 democracy movement cited the martial artist’s mantra — “Be water, my friend” — as a reminder to adopt flexible tactics of resistance.

WASHINGTON — NASA has succeeded in re-establishing full contact with Voyager 2 by using its highest-power transmitter to send an “interstellar shout” that righted the distant probe’s antenna orientation, the space agency said on Friday.

Launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets and serve as a beacon of humanity to the wider universe, it is currently more than 19.9 billion kilometres from our planet — well beyond the solar system.

A series of planned commands sent to the spaceship on July 21 mistakenly caused the antenna to point two degrees away from Earth, compromising its ability to send and receive signals and endangering its mission.

The situation was not expected to be resolved until at least October 15 when Voyager 2 was scheduled to carry out an automated realignment manoeuvre.

But engineers enlisted the help of multiple Earth observatories that form the Deep Space Network to detect a carrier or “heartbeat” wave from Voyager 2, though the signal was still too faint to read the data it carried.

In a new update on Friday, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which built and operates the probe, said it had succeeded in a longshot effort to send instructions that righted the craft.

“The Deep Space Network used the highest-power transmitter to send the command [the 100-kw S-band uplink from the Canberra site] and timed it to be sent during the best conditions during the antenna tracking pass in order to maximise possible receipt of the command by the spacecraft,” Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd told AFP.

This so-called “interstellar shout” required 18.5 hours traveling at light speed to reach Voyager, and it took 37 hours for mission controllers to learn whether the command worked, JPL said in a statement.

The probe began returning science and telemetry data at 12:29am Eastern Time on August 4, “indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory”, added JPL.

Mankind’s beacon

Voyager 2 left the protective magnetic bubble provided by the Sun, called the heliosphere, in December 2018, and is currently travelling through the space between the stars.

Before leaving our solar system, it explored Jupiter and Saturn, and became the first and so far only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune.

Voyager 2’s twin Voyager 1 was mankind’s first spacecraft to enter the interstellar medium, in 2012, and is currently almost 24 billion kilometres from Earth.

Both carry “Golden Records” — 30-centimetre, gold-plated copper disks intended to convey the story of our world to extraterrestrials.

These include a map of our solar system, a piece of uranium that serves as a radioactive clock allowing recipients to date the spaceship’s launch, and symbols that convey how to play the record.

The contents of the discs, selected for NASA by a committee chaired by legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, include encoded images of life on Earth, as well as music and sounds that can be played using an included stylus.

For now, the Voyagers continue to transmit back scientific data, though their power banks are expected to be eventually depleted sometime after 2025.

They will then continue to wander the Milky Way, potentially for eternity, in silence.

An affordably attainable and uncomplicatedly honest small saloon that is true to Suzuki’s unofficial “light makes right” ethos, the Dzire is a refreshing alternative to the taller and heavier crossovers and EVs gaining popularity in recent times.

The traditional three-box saloon sister to the Japanese manufacturer’s small and feisty Swift hatchback, the Dzire may not be a fast car, but retains much of the same fun driving characteristics and responsive handling, and is also a reassuring and confident daily commuter car for town and highway.

Introduced in 2017 in its third generation and face-lifted for the 2020 model year, the Dzire plays up to Suzuki’s reputation for playfully entertaining and charismatic small cars, but uses the more developing market-friendly four-door saloon body style. Narrow and upright, the Dzire features similarly subtle side character lines as the Swift, but gains a small, short and high-set rear deck in place of a hatchback boot. Recently refreshed, the Dzire now adopts a taller, more aggressive grille, flanked by bigger and more dramatic faux side intakes.

Eager engine

A hungrier looking and lighter car than its predecessor, the Dzire is powered by a small yet eager naturally-aspirated multi-point injection 1.2-litre four-cylinder engine, driving the front wheels through a 5-speed automated manual gearbox. Producing 82BHP at 6,000rpm and 83lb/ft torque at 4,200rpm, it carries the Dzire’s svelte 890kg frame through 0-100km/h in 13.2-seconds and onto a 170km/h maximum. A 5-speed three pedal manual gearbox version is also available, which one suspects would offer better drivability, engagement and efficiency, not to mention quicker 11.7-second 0-100km/h acceleration and a 175km/h top speed. 

Responsive in character and progressive in its delivery, the Dzire’s naturally-aspirated engine is delightfully revvy and is at its best when wrung hard to its rev limit, as its thrumming sound rises to a distant and subdued, but nevertheless pleasant snarl. Not particularly fast owing to its small capacity, the Dzire’s engine is, however, not overburdened by weight and instead avails itself well with what limited output is available. Launching smartly from standstill, the Dzire pulls reasonably well from low revs, and offers adequate mid-range versatility for its class and output.

Desirable dynamics

As flexible as can be expected for its small displacement, the Dzire is better served when stretching its legs and reaching towards its high-revving torque and power peak points rather than relying on its limited low-rev and mid-range grunt. Its gearbox is meanwhile smooth and responsive enough for an automated clutch manual, and features seemingly well-spaced ratios. However, as with most such systems that are often deployed for more sporting vehicles, it does tends to respond quicker and more succinctly through gears when driven hard and at higher revs.

Expected to be better with a manual gearbox to exploit its buzzy and eager engine, the automated gearbox Dzire nevertheless proved to be an agile, responsive and entertaining car with quick, light, eager, tidy and grippy turn-in. Nimble and well controlled through corners and sudden direction changes, the Dzire has the fun hallmarks of a sweet driving light car, as has come to be expected of Suzuki. Well-weighted with good levels of resistance and road feel through corners, the Dzire’s steering can feel vague, yet reassuringly damped on centre, for stability at speed.

User-friendly manoeuvrability

Highly manoeuvrable, easy to park, willing to turn on a proverbial dime and instinctive to drive, the Dzire is a natural city car that is as much at home on narrow winding country lanes. The Dzire rides with more grounded and more refined manner than its lightweight and small size would suggest. Comfortably dispatching most lumps and bumps, it nevertheless has decent body lean control through corners, while ride quality is settled yet alert, but without being heavy or overly planted. That said, it remains stable and refined for its class on motorways.

Well-packaged and pleasantly upbeat, the Dezire’s makes good use of its limited size and narrow body, with good front space, and adequate, if not quite generous room for taller rear passengers. Accommodating 378-litres of luggage in its boot, the ever-practical Dzire meanwhile provides good road visibility, despite its high waistline, and an alert and comfortable driving position. With its contoured steering wheel and large clear instrumentation, it has a sporty yet sensibly user-friendly ambiance and layout, and features easy to reach and uncomplicated controls, and a good level of standard equipment, depending on model.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.2-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 73 x 71.5mm

Compression: 11:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, multi-point injection

Gearbox: 5-speed manual, automated clutch, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 82 (83) [61] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 68.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 92BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 83 (113) @4,200rpm

Specific torque: 94.4Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 127Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: approximately 13.2-seconds (estimate)

Top speed: 170km/h (estimate)

Fuel capacity: 37-litres

Length: 3,995mm

Width: 1,735mm

Height: 1,515mm

Wheelbase: 2,450mm

Kerb weight: 890kg

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 9.6-metres

Suspension: MacPherson struts/torsion beam, coil springs

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/drums

Tyres: 185/65R15

By Nathalie Khalaf
Holistic Counsellor

When children are not made to feel like they can freely express any of their full range of emotions, then they may start suppressing how they feel in order not to threaten their relationship with their parents-this is known as depression-it is here that our encounters with depression start which will later spill over in adult life.

Depression and mental health

Depression today is one of the most talked about and, unfortunately, feared topics in mental health, and no wonder. It is a scary and lonely place to be. As a child, I remember my happy moments with my family at home. I remember not feeling comfortable when any unhappiness or fights arose. As a child, I was not comfortable with hearing or seeing my parents ‘unhappy’ and I certainly did not understand it as a natural relationship dynamic.

I always wanted everyone to be happy. That desire later was also transferred onto friends and society. Children need the security of feeling loved, accepted and wanted and when they don’t feel that, they often take things personally.

Emotional overload

If parents fight between themselves, a child may translate this into “my parents hate me, I am the cause of this”. A child is also exposed to a multitude of other emotions such as anger, sadness, jealousy and other unwelcome emotions. Even the overly loud, joyous screams and expressions may be a cause to be reprimanded because the level of sound is not appreciated by the adults around.

Children need to express themselves and that also involves the sounds which accompany those feelings: Screams of joy and laughter, tears, screams of rage and anger and so on. As a child is growing up and experiencing all these emotions — all that energy in a little body which they cannot truly understand, but simply experience — they just instinctively express it in the most convenient way which is by “allowing it out” — this is the correct way to release emotions. 

If a child learns early on to “manage” emotions and to only express the desired ones accepted by others, then a lot of energy will be suppressed until that becomes the norm.

Suppressed energy

The way the body reacts by default becomes the depression of flowing energy. That flow of energy, as I addressed in previous articles, is the healthy natural state of being. Once we learn to suppress, the energy at one point becomes too heavy for our mental and emotional states of being to be handled. This is when we suffer from what is called “depression”.

When we discuss our symptoms with a psychologist or psychiatrist and we mention intense tiredness, deep unhappiness, worrying anxiety, crying for no reason, the lack of appetite for life. Mainstream medicine’s solution is by prescribing antidepressants, which for some odd reason still suppress more emotions.

A state of no desire to be

I speak out of personal experience. Having suffered and dealt with depression and anti-depressants for several years I suffered from what I call a “state of no desire to be”. I did meet with a psychiatrist who took no more than 10 minutes to label me with clinical depression, with no attempt to find out anything about my upbringing, childhood traumas or relationship issues.

I was prescribed pills for several months until it was decided on my behalf that it was time to stop and eventually released from medication. Here is what happened during and after the time of medication: I felt no sadness nor anger... but neither did I feel joy! I was just so happy not to feel sad for as long as possible.

Then came the time I had to drop the medication and go out into the wild world, unarmed with chemicals and face my life. I soon realised that nothing had changed! My relationships were the same, the world was the same and my mood swings returned and so did my desire to not feel the sadness, despair and anger.

Needless to say, it took a few trials on and off of antidepressants until I found someone to talk to. This therapist talked to me for hours, even days. We spoke about my childhood, parents and relationships. She explained to me how so much energy had been depressed in my body over the years, due to me not wanting to feel the painful emotions, until my mental and emotional health could not deal with the depressed energy anymore.

The body and mind connection

Of course, the physical body is forever intertwined with what goes on mentally and emotionally inside of us. I swore to understand and release all suppressed sadness and anger until I started feeling the release, the freedom, the love, the happiness and joy again. Of course, it takes work and of course, it takes time. I chose my health above everything else.

The next time someone labels you with the Big D, please remember where to start: Find someone compassionate to talk you through it and learn to release all pent-up emotions. You deserve happiness and joy!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

WASHINGTON — They are ubiquitous in the United States, controversial in Europe and coveted in South Asia. As heatwaves intensify across the world, air conditioning has taken centre stage.

For better or for worse, these power-hungry appliances are among the most common adaptations to a warming world. They have become a necessary tool for the survival of millions, according to experts.

But while they bring immediate, life-saving relief, air conditioners come at a cost to the climate crisis because of their enormous energy requirements.

Air conditioning is responsible for the emission of approximately 1 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), out of a total of 37 billion emitted worldwide.

It is possible to end this vicious cycle, experts say, by increasing the contribution of renewable energies, developing less energy-intensive air conditioners and augmenting them with other cooling techniques.

“There are some real purists who think that we can eliminate, but I just don’t think that’s feasible,” Robert Dubrow, a Yale epidemiologist who specialises in the health effects of climate change, told AFP.

Access to air conditioning already saves tens of thousands of lives a year, a figure that is growing, according to a recent IEA report co-authored by Dubrow.

Studies show that the risk of heat-related death is reduced by about three-quarters for those living in homes with an air conditioner.

In the United States, where about 90 per cent of households have AC, studies have highlighted the role of air conditioning in protecting the population — and the potentially devastating effect of widespread power cuts during heatwaves. 

But globally, of the 3.5 billion people living in hot climates, only about 15 per cent have air conditioners at home.

High costs, high emissions

The number of air conditioners in the world, about 2 billion today, is set to skyrocket as temperatures and incomes rise.

India, China and Indonesia — the first, second and fourth most populous countries in the world — are among those that will see the strongest growth.

By 2050, the share of households in India equipped with air conditioners could increase from 10 to 40 per cent, according to a recent study.

But such an increase in electricity consumption would be equivalent to the current total annual production of a country like Norway.

If India’s future grid uses as much fossil fuels as it does today, that would mean around 120 million tonnes more carbon dioxide emitted annually — or 15 per cent of the country’s current energy sector emissions.

The problems posed by increased air conditioning do not stop there. Running power plants also causes air pollution.

Air conditioners also generally use fluorocarbon gases as refrigerants, which have a warming power thousands of times greater than CO2 when they escape into the atmosphere.

And by discharging their hot air out into the streets, air conditioning contributes to urban heat island effects.

A 2014 study found that at night heat emitted from air-conditioning systems in city centers increased the mean air temperature by more than 1ºC.

Finally, due to its cost, access to air conditioning poses a major equity issue.

Once installed, the price of the electricity bill can force families to choose between cooling and other essential needs.

For Enrica De Cian, a professor in environmental economics at Ca Foscari University in Venice, the use of AC is “an important strategy in certain conditions and in certain places”.

But, she adds, it’s essential to combine it with “complementary” approaches. 

First, by continuing to ramp up renewable energy production, and wind down fossil fuels, so that energy used by air conditioners leads to fewer emissions. 

Second, by developing and installing affordable air conditioners that consume less energy, which some companies are working on. The IEA advocates for stricter efficiency standards, but also recommends air conditioners to be set at a minimum of 24ºC.

Beyond limiting emissions, greater efficiency would also curb the risks of power cuts linked to excessive demand. On hot days, air conditioning can account for more than half of peak consumption.

But above all, the experts hammer home the simultaneous need for spatial planning measures: including more green spaces and bodies of water, sidewalks and roofs that reflect the Sun’s rays, and better building insulation.

VIENNA — Night trains have made a comeback in Europe thanks to their low-carbon footprint, but after years of neglect, the renaissance has had a bumpy ride.

Operators admit that the trains are outdated — with passengers facing the occasional delays, technical problems or malfunctioning toilets — while companies compete in an overloaded network.

Despite the challenges, national rail operators are giving night trains another chance while startups are jumping on the bandwagon as climate concerns are making travellers ditch kerosene-burning planes for cleaner modes of transportation.

Sitting at the crossroads between western and eastern Europe, Austria has been at the heart of this revival with the backing of the government even as low-cost airlines threatened to relegate sleeper trains to the history books.

Austrian rail operator OeBB, a pioneer in the sector, has Europe’s biggest fleet of night trains, serving 1.5 million passengers in carriages that include bed compartments.

The state-owned company considered abandoning its overnight services at one point, but it went the opposite direction and invested in them instead.

“Our night trains are nearly fully booked,” OeBB spokesman Bernhard Rieder told AFP as summer travel is in full swing in Europe.

OeBB runs 20 routes connecting Vienna and other cities throughout Europe.

“We have a long tradition with night train service,” Rieder said, pointing out how the Alpine nation’s mountainous topography makes having high-speed connections difficult.

Astrid Reiter, a 27-year-old consultant, booked a night train from Vienna to Zurich.

“It’s nice because you basically wake up in a different country,” she said. “If everything works out well, it’s a very convenient way to travel.”

She added: “I do hope that other companies other than the Austrian railway company develop more night trains and make it easier to have faster night trains.”

Rieder admits that the quality of its service “is not always as high these days as what we want to deliver to our customers”.

“There was no demand and no request for night trains for over 25 years” causing manufacturing to grind to a halt, he said.

In 2018, OeBB ordered 33 new night trains from German conglomerate Siemens to expand its reach and replace part of its ageing fleet.

The first trains — with a modern design, more privacy and more shower facilities — are expected to go into service at the end of this year.

Chris Engelsman, co-founder of the Belgian-Dutch startup European Sleeper, also complained about a shortage of “proper night train coaches”.

Established in 2021, his company inaugurated a Berlin-Brussels link in May. 

“The train is not always up to the modern standards, but despite that many people would like to travel by night train and the enthusiasm is quite big,” he told AFP.

“There are breakdowns sometimes or the toilets are not working or electricity is not working properly, things like that,” he added, blaming the “lack of investment for decades”.

Competition from low-cost flights and a lack of coordination between different European rail operators and companies are other obstacles.

It is difficult to compete with some flights’ “unreasonably low” prices, according to a recent report by NGO Greenpeace, with the aviation sector benefitting from subsidies and tax exemptions.

Rail transport, on the other hand, is “subject to various taxes and fees”, in particular for using the infrastructure, said Philipp Kosok, an analyst at the German think tank Agora.

“Operating night trains is very difficult, complex and expensive,” Kosok said, adding that the infrastructure was “overloaded” even at night when freight trains ply the rails.

There is also no centralised site to consult timetables and compare prices, with some in the industry complaining of a lack of political will.

“There’s not really a European approach to train travel at the moment,” Engelsman said.

French startup Midnight Trains co-founder Adrien Aumont said his company’s aim was to “reinvent” the night train “to make it a truly competitive means of transport against aviation”.

Aumont had the idea to create the company when his partner “decided never to get on a plane again”.

His startup is partnering with a night train maker to relaunch the once popular Paris-Milan-Venice line in 2025.

“I realised that it was almost impossible to travel in Europe [without flying]. People were asked to get off the planes, but without necessarily offering them solutions,” he told AFP.

He slammed a service that “has deteriorated” over time, far from the legendary and luxurious Orient Express.