The luxury train project for Tibet has been postponed for the second time in a year, the commissioned company said Monday, due to the global slowdown. Although they have not commented on it, it is also rumored that another problem is the socio-political tension in the Himalayas .
Tangula Luxury Trains expected to launch luxury tours from Beijing to Lhasa in April this year, but eventually the project will be delayed until spring 2010. As stated by the company’s spokesperson:
The rescheduling of our official launch has been a very recent decision and has been taken by the global economic climate.
The rescheduling of the project has led the company to lose a few million dollars , due to the large number of reserves that they already had contracted. The company sent a letter (via email) to all those people who had made the reservations, apologizing and explaining the reasons for the postponement.
The price of first-class travel from Beijing to Lhasa is approximately $ 5,000 (the most expensive reservation). The company has already invested around $ 100 million in its luxury trains. Tangula had already announced plans to start these luxury train transfers to Lhasa after the Beijing Olympics in August last year, but after the riots that broke out in Tibet in March 2008, the plans were postponed until April this anus.