LUAS 162

Irish Railway Record Society

RAILWAY PROCUREMENT AGENCY

(LUAS)

LUAS EXTENSIONS

Red Line (Tallaght-Connolly Station) The RPA has applied for an amendment to the Line A railway order, which would allow realignment of the line where it runs through N7/M50 interchange at the Red Cow. The need for the realignment has been brought about by the planned redesign of the road layout at this major junction.

Line A1 (Belgard-Citywest) The RPA is progressing the design of this extension of the Red Line, with a view of making an application for a railway order during 1^st quarter of 2007.

Line B1 (Sandyford-Brides Glen) On Friday 6 October, an application was made to the High Court on behalf of the owners of Clonlea House, challenging the granting of the Railway Order and seeking leave to apply for judicial review. The full hearing into the application is due to be held during January.

Line BX (St Stephen’s Green-City Centre) A second round of public consultation is to begin in January 2007. This will concentrate on two prime options, Option A from the original consultation phase and the hybrid option, now designated Option F, which emerged during that process (see JOURNAL 161). As part of either option, through-traffic on Dawson Street would be restricted, while Kildare Street and South Leinster Street would become two-way. Lower Grafton Street would be reserved for Luas, buses and service vehicles.

The RPA expect to complete the route selection process during Quarter 2, 2007.

Line C1 (Connolly Station - Point Depot) The Minister signed the Railway Order for this line on 18 December. There will be a two month waiting period before the order comes into force to allow for applications for apply for judicial review of the Minister’s decision.

Line F (Lucan-City Centre) The RPA has undertaken some preliminary work on this line, including identifying catchment areas and examining possible routes in the city centre.

STOCK

Extension Modules Delivery of the 10-m extension modules for the 26 Red Line trams is scheduled to begin in March 2007.

New Stock The RPA is to purchase an extra eight 40-metre trams for use on the Red and Green lines. These new vehicles will be additional to any trams required as a result of extensions to the system.

50-Metre Trams The RPA is examining the possibility of using of 50-metre trams on the Green Line. To this end Line BX proposals are being drawn up taking account of the possible need for platform lengths capable of accommodating the longer vehicles.

Finish RAILWAY PROCUREMENT AGENCY (LUAS) SECTION with two equal columns; follow with SEPARATOR LINE, centered, spaced by one Arial 8 blank line from preceding and following text, as per between obits.

VEOLIA (LUAS)

SERVICES

Christmas & New Year As in previous years Luas provided additional services during the Christmas and New Year period. On Fridays and Saturdays from 1 to 16 December extra services departed the city termini on both lines at 01:00, 01:30, 02:00, 02:30 and 03:00. Departures from Tallaght and Sandyford were at the same times, except that there was no service at 03:00. From Monday 18 to Saturday 23 December these additional services operated on a daily basis. The cost of a ticket for the late night services was €4.

Services on Christmas Eve finished at 20:00 and there were no services on Christmas Day. On St Stephen’s Day a Sunday timetable was operated, while on the following three days trams ran according to the Saturday timetable, but with a 05:30 start. A Sunday service was operated on New Year’s Day.

PASSENGERS

On 8 November, the total number of passenger journeys made on the two Luas lines since June 2004 passed the 50m mark.

In 2006, 26m passenger journeys were made on the two Luas lines, representing a 17% increase on the 2005 figure. The Red Line saw a 25% increase, while numbers on the Green Line grew by 10%.

SAFETY CAMPAIGN

Luas services clocked up almost 2.5 million km by mid-December 2006. During this period, cyclists and pedestrians have been involved in 18 accidents on the Luas system, the majority of these occurring in the city centre. In a number of instances, people had been distracted by using a mobile phone or wearing headphones.

In the run up to Christmas the RPA and Veolia launched a safety campaign appealing to pedestrians to be alert, never walk out in front of a tram when it is moving and cross at designated pedestrian crossing points.

MISCELLANEOUS

A Taxi driver who pleaded guilty to charges of careless driving and crashing a red light at Benburb Street/Blackhall Place junction has been fined €1,000 for careless driving and €200 for the traffic light violation. The Dublin District Court heard that in the incident, which occurred on 18 February 2005, the taxi hit a tram and another car.

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 162, published February 2007.