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BMW recalls 1.3 million vehicles in China that may have Takata airbag inflators

BMW was recalling more than 1.3 million vehicles in China that might have Takata airbag inflators following a similar recall in the United States last month, officials said Friday. The recall covers nearly 600,000 vehicles made in China between 2005 and 2017 and more than 750,000 imported vehicles made between 2003 and 2018, the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation said. A small number of vehicles in the recall may have Takata inflators if the owner changed the steering wheel, the Chinese regulatory body said.

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UK’s rarest cars: 1985 Volkswagen Santana GX5, one of only five left

Jack Forrest’s 1985 Volkswagen always manages to confuse the public. Some people believe it is an obscure form of Audi, despite the VW badges, while a few even believe it to be a Nissan. In fact, the Santana is a long-forgotten member of the Passat family – and there are believed to be only five of all types remaining on British roads.

Live A12 traffic updates after overturned lorry blocks entire carriageway near Colchester

There are long delays in the area

• Updated 09:48, 11 OCT 2021

The A 12 has been closed this morning due to a lorry overturning and blocking the road (Monday, October 11).

The northbound carriageway of the road is shut at junction 26 near Eight Ash Green, Colchester with traffic being diverted away from the road.

The incident happened at around 6.13am this morning.

Read more: Traffic and travel news from EssexLive

It is not known if there have been any serious injuries in relation to the crash.

Recovery for the overturned lorry is currently being arranged and travel offices have put in place a diversion through Colchester.

Drivers are being urged to avoid the area where possible.

We will be bringing you updates on the incident when we have them.

Essex Police and the East of England Ambulance Service have been contacted for comment.

You can follow our live blog below for updates:

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• The lorry has been removed 09:22

Police statement

We are at the scene of a collision on the A12 near Stanway. We were called to reports a lorry had overturned shortly before 6am today (Monday 11 October). If you have any information you can submit a report online at https://www.essex.police.uk or use the 'Live Chat' button to speak to an online operator between 7am-11pm. Please quote incident 103 of 11 October. You can also call us on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Colchester traffic

Traffic is queuing on the A134 Westway Eastbound at Colne Bank Roundabout, and is much heavier than normal.

Travel time is around 20 minutes.

It's not helped by the traffic diverting away from the earlier A12 closure.

The lorry has been removed

The overturned lorry on the A12 between J26 Eight Ash Green and J27 Spring Lane has been removed.

Traffic is already starting to ease again, after building up through Colchester and Eight Ash Green.

Get the latest news for Essex

Routes through Colchester and Eight Ash Green are also being affected as traffic diverts away from the site of the overturned lorry on the A12.

Accident on Maldon Road in Colchester

There has been an accident on Maldon Road, just south of Colchester city centre.

The crash has involved two vehicles blocking the road near of junction Fountain Lane.

Traffic is busy due to being one of the diversion routes from A12.

Colchester – Accident on Maldon Road in volving two vehicles blocking the road near of junction Fountain Lane – traffic busy due to being diversion route from A12 pic.twitter.com/fHiN1enfhe — Essex Travel News (@Essex_Travel) October 11, 2021

The accident on the A12 is continuing

ONGOING - A12 Northbound – CLOSED at J26 (Eight Ash Green) due to an overturned lorry blocking the carriageway – queuing traffic on the Northbound carriageway back towards J25 (Marks Tey/A120) pic.twitter.com/ef5UQ6yskU — Essex Travel News (@Essex_Travel) October 11, 2021

Get the latest traffic and travel updates for your area

Traffic update - delays.

Google Maps is warning drivers of 35 minute delays on the A12 between junctions 26 and 25 this morning.

The traffic heading into Colchester from the A12 has also been affected, with 13 minute delays on the A133 and seven minute delays on the A134 and the A1124.

Delays on the opposite carriageway

There continues to be delays on the northbound carriageway which remains shut.

Traffic is still queuing back to junction 25 at Marks Tey, and there is now congestion on the southbound carriageway where the crash has happened due to onlookers.

The recovery work to remove the overturned lorry is still ongoing.

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A diversion is in place to help ease the amount of traffic on the A12.

The diversion is sending the traffic through Colchester to rejoin the duel carriageway further north.

Recovery of the lorry is being arranged, and there is around two miles' worth of traffic trapped from the crash site leading back to the exit at junction 26.

How long are the traffic queues?

The Essex Highways team have stated the traffic is now queuing back to junction 25 with the A120 at Marks Tey, while emergency services continue to deal with the incident.

It is not yet known if anyone has been seriously injured but we have contacted the police and ambulance service for further details.

Where is the crash?

The lorry has overturned on the northbound carriageway of the A12, just after junction 26 at Eight Ash Green, Colchester.

The crash took place at approximately 6.13am this morning and traffic has been building ever since.

Good morning

Hello and welcome to the blog. We'll be bringing you updates as the A12 remains closed due to the overturned lorry today.

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Tropical Storm Ernesto: Track where the storm is heading in the latest models

Tropical Storm Ernesto formed Monday as it moved toward the Caribbean islands and the forecast suggest Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands could experience tropical storm conditions beginning Tuesday.

You can track the storm's path with the latest maps and models below and follow along with USA TODAY's coverage of Tropical Storm Ernesto as the fifth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season moves through the Caribbean.

The storm is expected to bring heavy rain and cause flash floods and mudslides but the mainland U.S. could be largely spared from the storm, according to forecasts.

Where is Ernesto heading?

The National Hurricane Center's 11 p.m. ET update Monday indicated that Ernesto could bring tropical storm conditions to parts of the Leeward Islands by early Tuesday, and the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico later in the day.

A tropical storm warning was issued in the area late Monday evening.

Tropical storm Ernesto path tracker

If the map above is not loading on your screen,  click here .

Tropical Storm Ernesto Spaghetti Models

Illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses only the top four or five highest-performing models to help make its forecasts.

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Is a Disney Theme Park Vacation Still Worth the Price?

As Disney has raised the cost of tickets and hotel rooms at its theme parks, and added pricey, difficult-to-navigate tools, even its most loyal fans are asking themselves if they should rethink their vacations.

By Tariro Mzezewa

Earlier this year, Jake Williams, a filmmaker and content creator in Toronto, made his long-awaited return to one of his favorite places on earth: Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. After traveling to Disney World and Disneyland multiple times a year since childhood and becoming an annual pass holder as an adult, Mr. Williams hadn’t been to a Disney park since 2019.

“As someone who went all the time, it’s crazy to me that I hadn’t gone to a Disney park in that long,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s a special place. ”

Before his trip, Mr. Williams heard about some changes at Disney World, but he didn’t anticipate how different things would be, starting at the airport. Since his last visit, the company had gotten rid of the Magical Express, a free bus that for more than 15 years shuttled people from Orlando International Airport to their Disney resorts. Guests must now take a shuttle that costs between $23 and $30 per adult each way, depending on the time of year, use a ride share service or rent a car.

To Disney-goers, the end of the Magical Express speaks to a larger issue: The cost of being at the happiest place on earth is going up while the perks are going away. As the company has raised the price of tickets and hotel rooms, and added costly, difficult-to-navigate tools to book rides as replacements for previously free products, even its most loyal fans are asking themselves if it’s still worth it.

Mr. Williams said that a day in the Orlando parks and a one-night stay at Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort cost a “jaw-dropping” $886.34 for two adults. He decided to calculate how much the same trip cost in 2017 — a year when he visited the park several times. The cost: $567.90. Even accounting for inflation, he was stunned.

“It’s hard to justify going to Orlando rather than, like, Iceland,” he said. “When you have a budget like this, you can go a lot of places and see and do a lot of things. You could even do a Disney cruise for less than that.”

Epcot’s Italy, or Italy?

He’s not alone. Len Testa, president of Touring Plans , a site that helps travelers organize Disney trips, and a co-author of “The Unofficial Guides to Walt Disney World and Disneyland,” said that he increasingly hears from Disney lovers who are now planning other types of vacations.

“At some point a Disney vacation starts competing with ‘Let’s go see Europe’ and I think that’s what a lot of people are doing,” Mr. Testa said. “I’ve had a number of people in the last few years say, ‘We priced it out and we could take our children to eat pizza in the Italy pavilion in Epcot or for the same money we could actually go to Italy for two weeks. We’re going to go to Italy for two weeks.’”

For Mr. Testa, collecting data about Disney is a passion. In the late ’90s, as a graduate student in computer science he decided he wanted to build a computer program that could help people navigate Disney World as efficiently as possible. That research continued through his Ph.D and the program he created turned into Touring Plans. His team of developers and data scientists model what’s going on at Walt Disney World on a minute-by-minute basis every day. The data they’ve collected in recent years shows that the cost of a Disney World trip, on average, has gone up almost 25 percent since 2019. Seventy percent of that increase is for services that used to be free.

The prices of parking and entry tickets have consistently risen in recent years. In 2022 ticket prices went up two times. In 2023 annual passes saw a $30 to $50 increase, depending on the tier, while multiday tickets also went up. A one-day ticket to either of Disney’s U.S. parks now costs $109 for anyone over the age of 10.

One analysis concluded that between 2014 and 2025, the base price for tickets has gone up 32 percent and increased by 90 percent for the highest-priced tickets. In 2025 the base price for an adult one-day ticket will be $119 and the higher tickets will be $199. Hotel prices have also risen. The cheapest hotels at Disney World now cost an average of $187 per night, according to Disney Magic Guides , a resource for planning trips to the parks.

In an earnings call this week , Disney’s leaders acknowledged that they’ve seen a slowdown at the parks and that, because of the economy, lower-income visitors are financially stressed, while higher-income guests are traveling internationally. And Disney is not alone: Tickets for Universal Studios in Florida and in California often cost as much as Disney tickets. In July, Comcast said Universal’s revenue fell by 11 percent in the prior quarter, with visitors turning to cruises and international travel.

In an email, a spokeswoman for Disney said the company is always trying to offer guests an array of tickets and experiences. To the company, and its most loyal fans, she said, the value of the experiences is worth the price.

“We are purposeful about creating more ticket and hotel price points than ever before to provide guests a variety of opportunities to visit our parks,” she said, adding that “a visit to a Disney theme park is a 10- to 16-hour experience with attractions, entertainment and more.”

Apps overload

For many guests, price isn’t the only hurdle. Visitors now have to navigate several new apps and tools if they want the best chance at getting on the most popular rides. In the past, they could get a free FastPass, which allowed them to go to the front of a line for a ride. In 2021, Disney replaced the FastPass with a digital feature called Genie+ that park goers had to pay for and that was supposed to make booking rides more efficient. Instead, it caused so much confusion that content creators started making videos that showed viewers how to “hack” the tool.

To get the best out of Genie+ guests had to buy the app early in the morning ( avid park-goers recommended doing so at 6 a.m.) and then, at 7 a.m., they would book rides for the day. They could only book more rides after they’d completed their first activity or two hours after making their first reservation. And they couldn’t choose what time they wanted to get on a ride — Genie+ would do it for them. Mr. Testa said all of this led to “Disney complexity fatigue.”

“ God forbid on your vacation, you want to go back to your hotel and take a nap,” Mr. Testa said. Others said having to always be on their phones took away from the experience of being on vacation.

Disney heard the complaints. In July, Genie+ became Lightning Lane Multi Pass, which makes it possible for people to reserve rides ahead of time, instead of on the day they are in the park. The new system, which starts at $30 a day, is an attempt at mixing Genie+ and FastPass, but only those willing to pay extra can use all the features. The Disney spokeswoman said that so far, guests are “very pleased” with Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Reviews on social media show that it may be too soon to tell. On Reddit, reviewers lamented the different prices for Lightning Lane passes, with one person saying she “despised the process” of booking in the new system so much she felt like throwing her phone.

Jeremy Sonkin, a Chicago-based content creator who makes videos about theme parks, was at Disney World on the first day the new system was available. He said the new app is less confusing than Genie+, but it doesn’t feel like an upgrade.

“The idea and thought behind trying to bring back the ‘Fast Pass plus’ system is correct, but it’s not a level playing field and I can see this causing just as much, if not more, frustration from guests,” he said.

Greg Antonelle, the managing director of MickeyTravels , a travel agency that focuses on booking Disney trips, said his company is having a great year, with travelers looking to experience new rides like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure , which replaced the old Splash Mountain ride. He said that complaining about Disney is par for the course.

“We’ve been in business for 13 years and we’ve heard complaints about cost for 13 years,” Mr. Antonelle said. “It’s nothing new.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

An earlier version of this article misstated the starting month of the Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Disney World. It started in July, not June.

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Tariro Mzezewa, a former national correspondent at The Times, is a reporter who writes about culture and style. More about Tariro Mzezewa

Transforming rail: More convenient and sustainable train travel in the EU

Travelling by train in Europe is becoming more convenient and sustainable thanks to recent EU initiatives. New regulations for the trans-European transport network  (TEN-T) to improve rail connectivity and make travel greener have recently entered into force. This means better and more efficient rail services across Europe .

The EU's Action Plan to boost long-distance and cross-border passenger rail services is a key part of these efforts. It aims to double high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and triple it by 2050 . Launched in 2021, this plan focuses on removing obstacles, improving interoperability, modernising passenger rail infrastructure, and enhancing the quality of services across EU countries.

To further support cross-border travel, the European Commission has announced its support for 10 pilot projects to boost cross-border rail services . This will improve cross-border rail connections across the EU and make travel faster, easier and more affordable.

Young travellers can particularly benefit from the DiscoverEU  programme, which regularly offers free travel passes to 18-year-olds to explore Europe by train . This programme encourages cultural exchange and highlights the environmental advantages of rail travel. The next call for applications should be published in autumn 2024.

Passenger rights are also a significant focus of the EU’s transport policy. Travellers in Europe are well-protected in case something goes wrong during their trip. EU passenger rights  cover delays, cancellations, and accessibility issues.

The EU is committed to making train travel a top choice by improving regulations, creating ambitious plans, and supporting special programmes. These efforts aim to make rail travel more sustainable, efficient, and well-connected across Europe.

For more information

An Action Plan to boost long-distance and cross-border passenger rail services

Connecting Europe by train: 10 EU pilot services to boost cross-border rail

Mobility strategy

Know your EU passenger rights before you travel

Rail passenger rights

Travelling in Europe 2024

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