Every year I go to Eurofurence and every year I use the equivolent of 40 litres of petrol flying flying there from London, and a similar amount flying back. The last few years I've tried to find lower CO2 ways of getting there, and the only semi practical alternative is going via train. Unfortunately that takes 7 hours longer than going by plane, and the plane take 5 hours as it is.

So I started thinking of alternatives that didn't exist. This was one of the better alternatives, a night bus service directly from London Victoria to Berlin Hauptbahnhof. So I put some thought into designing the 'best' kind of bus for that kind of route...

Also I was very sick this week, and decided to try and do something vaguely productive. This picture was the result. Double also it's super easy to cheat with 'natural lighting' when the only source of illumination is sodium lamps. ^.^

A coach service takes two hours longer than even the train (15 total) which sounds worse, unless it's a night service, and the seats are comfortable enough to sleep in, and also spacious enough to allow laptops 'n' such to be easily used. Sleep for 8 hours, and that becomes subjectively a 7 hour journey. Obviously bigger seats will drive up ticket costs, so I want to fit as many seats on board as possible to counteract that, which lead to the unusual layout.

This is a coach/HGV hybrid, with the drivers cab removed and the passenger cabin pushed forwards into the free space. This allows for maximum usable passenger area, while maintaining the low turning circles advantages of the HGV. The removal of the diesel engine reduces maintenance, and the usage of an 'eHighway' pantograph system removes the need for an implausibly large battery. I'm assuming L4 or L5 automation, so there's no need for a driver, though there likely would be a steward on board, to check tickets, handle luggage, monitor passenger behaviour, make money for the airline by selling stuff, and assist passengers in an emergency.

In theory this would be cheaper and more comfortable than an aircraft, and emit even less CO2 than the train. Though obvious negatives are the extra cost, weight, and maintenance of the 'fifth wheel' pivot point linking the forward wheels to the rest of the body. In the real world, advances in engineering, and technology, and well as the vagaries of market forces and future legal codes will decide if the extra complexity is worth the additional passenger area.

Personally I'd much rather electric aircraft (6.5 hours) or conventional aircraft running on synthetic red-kerosene (5hr) but it's probably going to be a while before we see either of those scale to passenger jets.