I’m posting this as I travel to Dublin on the new Gobus service from Galway and I have to say I’m a fan already. Not only is it the only direct bus service between the cities it’s also the only intercity transport service IN THE COUNTRY from Galway to offer a WiFI service.

They’re also smart enough and have enough foresight to know that this isn’t an opportunity to squeeze another dollar from your customer and the wifi is free. The also have toilets on board for those that need them. I don’t know the guys at Gobus but here’s a quote from their about page

GoBus is a new coach company, operated by Jim Burke & Sons of Tuam. Jim has spent over 30 years in the Transport Business and prides himself in listening to customer requirements and being able to provide the right solution at the right price.

I think it’s safe to say that in this case those aren’t idle words. I’m not crazy about their website and I think they could have better information, or an FAQ section may be in order, but the payment route is simple and clean.

This is a company that has got the important basics right for me and improved web experience is more of a nice to have. More importantly while not being as comfortable as the newer rail experience from Irishrail (you don’t have a table and working at a laptop is more difficult) at 10 euro single and 20 euro return on top of everything else, it tops the Irish Rail(43 euro) and Bus Eireann (13.60 single 17 return)euroin terms of value for money, and in the current climate (yes I did use THAT phrase) can our public services afford to continue to offer poor services with no value add? Surely a Green government should be encouraging people to our public transport system by offering services customers want, at prices that are reasonable with added services that make them even more desirable.

Please can whoever is in charge of our Public transport hire Jim Burke as a consultant, I have a feeling it’d be money well spent.

Update: It appears I’m behind the times on this as corrected by James in the comments. JJ Kavanaghs beat them to it

When it comes to green energy I’m something of oddity. I believe that energy efficiency is massively important but not for the much pushed issue of climate change in fact I think the constant push of the climate change argument is one of the greatest hindrances to adoption and change. Essentially if your argument for the change in energy consumption is based on this premise then if you fail to convince people of it then you will fail to get them to change their behaviour.

Everyone especially businesses and government understand the economic imperative, reduced costs equals greater profit from the same output. Green technologies should be adopted because they are more economically viable in the long term. This is the message that needs to be sent to the public and businesses.

Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute explains better why we should let the free market decide the future of energy consumption far better than I could.

Update: To clarify I am not saying that climate change isn’t real only that it’s difficult to convince people that it is attributable to human endeavours.

Bio for Amory B. Lovins

Cofounder and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Amory B. Lovins is a consultant experimental physicist educated at Harvard and Oxford. He has received an Oxford MA (by virtue of being a don), nine honorary doctorates, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood (”Alternative Nobel”), World Technology, and TIME Hero for the Planet awards, the Happold Medal, and the Nissan, Shingo, Mitchell, and Onassis Prizes. His work focuses on transforming the hydrocarbon, automobile, real estate, electricity, water, semiconductor, and several other sectors toward advanced resource productivity. He has briefed eighteen heads of state, held several visiting academic chairs, authored or co-authored twenty-nine books and hundreds of papers, and consulted for scores of industries and governments worldwide. Newsweek has praised him as “one of the Western world’s most influential energy thinkers”; and Car magazine ranked him the twenty-second most powerful person in the global automotive industry.