Installing an electric bus route in West Clare would offer tourists an authentic connection with locals if the project goes ahead.
Plans are in place to develop a West Clare Trailway and electric bus system across the region to provide tourists and locals with a new and innovative way of travelling in the county. This bus would not be limited to just visitors and consequently would offer a chance for them to get a real flavour of the area they’re in.
“They’re not just meeting people who are in the industry who are trying to sell them something or guide them in a way towards their viewpoint of what should or shouldn’t be done in an area, when you’re dealing with people who are just using the bus for public transport they have a whole different perspective on where we live because they’re not in the business so it’s really refreshing”, Cillian Murphy of Loop Head Tourism told The Clare Herald.
“I think for a visitor to get that colour, that connection where its real not contrived or something to be bought or sold, it’s a real connection for free and our side we would get a public transport system. If we could bring in a group of ten or twelve people who wanted to come here for three or four days the electric bus would be there and a guide so there’s a lot of strings to this bow which would all tie together. If we can pull it off it would be one of the most innovative tourism community projects in the country hands down”.
For the moment it appears that a diesel bus will have to be used for the first year of the project as the costs required to get an electric bus in place have not been met. The next step for the plan is for a route licence to be obtained.
“There would have to be a route licence sought, then there’s going to have to be infrastructure so we would say they have a diesel bus for the minute so would we have to run it with them for the first year because the electric bus is going to need a huge cost”.
Getting a major company on board to help purchase the electric bus would be an ideal scenario for Cillian and those involved in bringing this movement to West Clare. “How cool would it be to get our hands on Google, Twitter or Intel or somebody to spring for an electric bus, it would be phenomenal. They’re expensive there’s no getting away from it there’s a huge capital outlay, it’s probably a multiple of the diesel bus cost but the other side of it is the running costs of it are very low so paying up front but you’re not paying every week and I think the weekly cost if you’re running the business is where the figures would stack up”.