It's time for another of my attempts to get the transportation schedules for Amazing Race 18 into focus. I have used as the timing of each leg the excellent work done by woden in the front of the TIMELINE thread. Here is what I came up with:
Leg 1 11/20 depart LAX for SYD
QF12 departed at 2326, but encountered a major problem en route, diverted to Honolulu to land there at 0159 on 10/21 and subsequently in Sydney at 0959 (runway but 1047am leaving airport) 10/22. This had the 8 teams quickest to find the clue in the Palm Springs area playing catchup. It is critical that teams get back into competitive range by getting to the next place (Broken Hill) in time to do a leg and catch the twice-a-week Indian Pacific Railroad.
QF108 departed at 2348 with 3 teams last teams to bring Qantas airplanes to Phil in Palm Springs and arrived 0956 on 11/22
tasks around Sydney
Leg 2 11/22 ZL878 flies SYD BHQ 1820 2010
11/23 ZL9578 0605 0755
ZL9596 0630 0820
tasks around Broken Hill
Leg 3 in order to get on the Indian Pacific Railroad, teams must be ready to go by 1830 on 11/23, which implies a record short pit stop
This train arrives in Sydney at 1015 on 10/24.
Teams must transfer to SYD airport and fly to Tokyo. Choices on 10/24 are:
CX100 1539 2144 SYD HKG, connecting with CX524 HKG 0245 0732 (note - late by about 100 minutes leaving and 92 minutes arriving)
QF21 2204 0613 SYD NRT
tasks around Tokyo
leg 4 Tokyo to Kunming Sat. 11/27
flight choices:
NH5711 NRT CKG (Chonqing) 0855 1515, connecting to MU5722 CKG KMG 1555 1710
CA422 NRT PEK (Beijing) 0900 1200, connecting with CA4170 PEK KMG 1415 1740
NH919 NRT PVG (Shanghai) 0940 1210, connecting with CZ6799 PVG KMG 1420 1745
MU522 NRT PVG 1155 1920, connecting with MU748 PVG KMG 2100 0025
transfer to rail to reach Lijiang, 524 km away on 11/28:
train K9606/9607 dep. Kunming 2200 arr. Lijiang East 0710
or train K9602/K9603 dep. Kunming 2141 arr. Lijiang East 0523
less likely:
train 5652/5653 dep. Kunming 0822 11/28 arr. Liang East 1956
tasks around Lijiang
leg 5 Lijiang to Kunming 11/30
train K9601/9604 dep. 0810 arr. 1542
or train K9610/9611 dep. Lijiang East 1021 Kunming 1758
or possibly on 11/29 train K9609/K9612 dep. 2110 arr. 11/30 0559
Kunming to Kolkata
The best possible flight in nonstop MU555 KMG CCU 2355 2350
An alternative combination is MU757 KMG KTM (Kathmandu) Wed. 12/1 0830 0915, connecting with AI9414 KTM DEL 1000 1125, connecting with AI112 DEL CCU 1330 1540
leg 6 tasks around Kolkata
leg 7 Kolkata to Varanasi 12/2
Here is where I deviate from what has been reported by woden, as "Teams seen in departure area of CCU (Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport) on 12/2 at apx 3:10pm ; Jen/LaKisha booking Kingfisher Airlines flight" is not possible on that day. The reason is that the few flights into and out of Varanasi airport are scheduled early in the day. There is no Kingfisher Airlines flight departing Varanasi at that time. The latest flight is 9W2461 CCU VNS dep. 1105 , stopping in Lucknow and arriving Varanasi 1400.
A team at CCU airport at 3pm will be forced to either take a train to get to Varanasi or do a combination of flights through Delhi the next morning.
tasks around Varanasi
leg 8 Varanasi to Vienna starting 12/3
Choices of flights from Varanasi to Delhi:
IT336 1358 1521
9W724 1530 1707
SG119 1615 1750
Flight from Delhi to Vienna on Saturday 12/4:
OS34 0254 0556
tasks around Vienna
leg 9 Vienna to Vaduz Liechtenstein to Zermatt 12/6 and 12/7
Teams must get to Vienna main rail station for this 713km train journey to Feldkirch across most of east to west Austria:
dep. Vienna 0740 arrive Feldkirch 1509
From Feldkirch teams will want to take a Swiss postal bus to Vaduz about 30 minutes away
tasks around Liechtenstein
After completion of the major task in Liechtenstein, teams will want to go west and then south to reach Zermatt.
First, teams must take another Swiss postal bus to Buchs about 30 minutes away.
then take a IC train leaving as indicated:
dep. Buchs 0710 0805 0910 1012 1110 1212 1310 1412 1510 1910
arr. Zermatt 1152 1314 1352 1514 1614 1734 1814 19?? 1952 2344
tasks around Zermatt
leg 10 Zermatt to Rio de Janeiro dep. 12/9 arr. 12/10
This leg starts with an IC train from Zermatt to Zurich flughafen (airport). after every hour a train leaves at 13 minutes after or 39 minutes and gets to the airport at about 3 hours 37 minutes later.
Flights choices Zurich to Rio are:
LX656 ZRH CDG 1640 1755, connecting with JJ8055 CDG GIG 2100 0455+1
AF5109 ZRH CDG 1945 2110, connecting with AF442 CDG GIG 2220 0635+1
LH5777 ZRH FRA 1625 1730, connecting with JJ8069 FRA GIG 2015 0447+1
TP927 ZRH LIS 1905 2055, connecting with LIS GIG 2330 0650+1
LX092 ZRH GRU 2240 0645+1, connecting with JJ8081 GRU GIG 0940+1 1041+1
tasks in and around Rio de Janeiro
leg 11 Rio de Janeiro 12/11 and probably 12/12
leg 12 12/12 It appears that teams get to Sao Paulo airport by late evening on 12/12. Why this is the case is totally unclear, since there are several good flights from Rio (GIG) to Miami:
JJ8056 2208 0352+1
AA904 2225 0348+1
From Sao Paulo (GRU), here are the flights:
AA906 2352 0509+1
JJ8090 0005 (12/13) 0539
AA930 0336 0936 (departed and arrived 90 minutes late)
AA198 1043 1526 (major delay due to reported problems with pilots; teams were switched to AA930)