For business people, 3G networks and portable devices mean that communication, management, media post-production, design, engineering and whatever are not tied to location. One could even run a help desk on the move!
This is why I believe that European coastal transport by ship is feasible - with considerable rethinking on the design of those ships. Ships need to be designed for productivity rather than low-end entertainment. This already happens in a half-hearted way on the giant ferries running between Finland and Sweden: there are conference rooms, auditoria etc. - but surrounded by low end entertainment.
The Finnish Intercity double-decker Pendolinos have an excellent business section. Many use the time on board to prepare for meetings ahead. The Pendolinos are not run particularly fast, but they don't need to be if you can do some work on board. I travelled to Turku once with a songwriter who remixed a song on his laptop using Pro Tools and headphones during the journey.
The problem with energy, as one of my clients is fond of saying, is that its use is sub-optimized. In the case of energy for transport, the concept of relocation has to be rethought. Getting from A to B as fast as possible, has to be rethought as getting from A to B as productively as possible. You can't be me, I'm taken
Finnish Intercity double-decker Pendolinos
Nitpick: surely you mean locomotive-pulled double-deck Intercity trains and Pendolinos? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
But more info here You can't be me, I'm taken
Damn right. On most French TGV, you can't plug your laptop, so that either you're on your own power, or you somehow know which trains do offer the possibility, or maybe you travel first class.
Just plain old 220v. power on a recent electrical train : it can't be such an engineering challenge ?
The ICE from Munich to Frankfurt even has WLAN (I haven't actually had a chance to try it yet), and this should be extended to Hamburg by the end of the year.
