Tag Archives: travel

Learn more about the Other Birmingham

screenshot from "The Other Birmingham"A couple of years ago there were a couple of incidents involving folks from Birmingham, AL and the city we’re named after, Birmingham, UKconfusing the skylines of the two cities separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

There’s an online resource that should help keep that from happening again.

The Other Birmingham was created by Fiona Cullinan, who originally created the piece for her travel journalism blog as a one-off. She has since maintained the site, enabling her to accept additional submissions about similarities between the two cities as well as suggestions about what else should be covered. There’s been a lot looked at already, including that growing list of similarities

By the way, there are several cities named Birmingham in the United States. They’re considerably smaller, like Birmingham, MO (population 214 according to the 2000 Census) and Birmingham, MI (pop. 19,291) to not even in existence anymore (e.g., Birmingham, KY).

Southwest’s slip could be Birmingham’s gain

Southwest Airlines logo. Courtesy of official website.A report released earlier this week could give loyal customers of low-cost airline Southwest Airlines here in Birmingham, AL a reason to hope, though it could still be a long shot.

The latest U.S. Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Report shows that Southwest has dropped to eighth place for on-time arrival performance, its lowest finish since the government began to collect the information in 1987 (see page 6 for the rankings).

A couple of weeks ago WBHM’s Andrew Yeager filed a piece about what the planned acquisition of AirTran by the Dallas-based airline may mean for The Magic City.

Considering that several reports about the results suggest the airline’s expansion into larger airports is a major reason for the drop, it gives more credence to the idea that shifting flights from the major hub in Atlanta to Birmingham might help them regain their on-time bragging badge of honor over the long term.

Time will tell…

Image: Southwest Airlines logo. Courtesy of official website.

Birmingham to Atlanta high-speed rail study announced

Earlier today, Birmingham Mayor William Bell joined the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham‘s executive director Charles Ball as plans were formally announced for a feasibility study that could lead to the creation of a high-speed rail link between Birmingham, AL and Atlanta, GA.

Ball stated during prepared remarks that the study would cost $500,000 with half of the funds available due to a portion of the federal stimulus bull. It will be a partnership between the RPCGB, the Georgia Department of Transportation and Norfolk Southern. The study is scheduled to begin on July 1 and take one year to complete.

The video includes portions of Ball’s comments and all of Bell’s comments to those gathered.

Birmingham enjoys some good press

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about Birmingham, AL going on in both mainstream media and on blogs that have a slightly wider reach than some of us may realize.

One example of this increase in attention come from The New York Times, which published one of their 36 hour travel stories about The Magic City. Another comes from the mind of one of our friends in the Windy City (and editor of Gapers Block), Andrew Huff, one that will probably not get as much attention locally. He contributes to Starwood Hotel’s preferred guest program’s blog, The Lobby, and recently took a look at The Hip Side of Birmingham, AL with a quick mention of their newest Aloft property adjacent to Homewood’s SoHo Square.

Anyone else know of some other online media mentions?