LUAS Dublin's Tram System

Luas (Irish for 'speed'), also promoted in the development stage as the Dublin Light Rail System, currently encompasses two unconnected on-street light rail lines in Dublin, Ireland. Originally under the organisation of Córas Iompair Éireann, the project was moved to the Railway Procurement Agency upon that body's inception, whilst it is operated by Veolia Transport Ireland (formerly known as Connex). The Luas is a major part of the Dublin Transportation Office's [1] 'DTO strategy (2000-2016)'. It is estimated that around 60,000 people use the LUAS daily.

Operation

Services commenced on the Green Line on Wednesday 30 June 2004, with free fares for the first five days of operation. The Red Line opened on 28 September 2004, almost a month behind schedule. It remains to be seen whether the Luas will prove effective in combating Dublin's traffic congestion problems.

The Red and Green Lines are separate lines, with separate depots and facilities, and fixed allocations of trams; there is no simple method to transfer trams between the two lines.

Network

A map of the network shows the Red and Green Lines and stopping points

The system runs off a 750 V DC overhead power supply, and one two-unit tram can carry 235 people. The international standard rail gauge of 1435 mm (4' 8½") is used, rather than the Irish 1,600 mm (5' 3").

The system was built comprising two lines:

Red Line: Tallaght to Connolly
Green Line: St. Stephen's Green to Sandyford

In the original plans, the Red Line was divided into Line A from Tallaght to Abbey Street and Line C from Abbey Street to Connolly Station, whilst Line B was the alternative name for the Green Line. This terminology, which split the network into three lines, is not currently used. Early reports also discussed a Line D from Broadstone to Ballymun and Dublin Airport and an underground Line E from St Stephen's Green to Broadstone - these would have formed a third line, from St Stephen's Green to Dublin Airport. However no firm details were set, though several proposed routes were investigated with a completion date of 2005 envisioned at the time. (One early configuration of the proposed route to Ballymun had a road-bound alignment following Drumcondra Road, Collins Avenue Extension and Ballymun Road.)

The Red Line runs in an east-west direction through Dublin's Northside, then crosses the Liffey and travels south-west to the suburb of Tallaght. The Green Line is entirely in Dublin's Southside. Apart from the city-centre section, where it runs down Harcourt Street to St. Stephen's Green, it follows the route of the old Harcourt Street railway line, which was reserved for possible re-use when it closed in 1958. The Red Line and Green Line are not connected to each other, with a 15-minute walk between the two closest points. Services run at regular intervals, from every five minutes during peak times to every 15 minutes late at night. The last tram leaves the terminus at 0030 (2330 on Sundays and public holidays).

Features

Yellow tram signs warn pedestrians and motorists of Luas track ahead.

The sleek silver Citadis trams, manufactured by Alstom, reach a top speed of 70 km/h on off-road sections, but travel at a slower speed where conflicts with other vehicles or pedestrians can occur. Red Line trams, at 30 m with a capacity of 235, are shorter than the 40 m Green Line trams, which have a capacity 358 including for two wheelchairs. All platforms have been constructed to 50 m length, allowing for future increases in capacity.

In other aspects, the two lines are identical except that the clearance between the lines on the Green Line is slightly wider than on the Red Line. This will allow wider metro trains be run on the same tracks if a proposed upgrade to full metro service is implemented. This is possible because the route uses an old railway line and as such has few interactions with vehicular or pedestrian traffic. The Red Line was constructed largely on or beside public roads and is not suited to wider and faster metro trains.

The main engineering structures on the Green Line at present are Milltown Viaduct, also known as The Nine Arches, a large stone viaduct dating from 1854, and the William Dargan Bridge, a large new cable-stayed suspension bridge at Taney Cross, near Dundrum town centre.

Future

The Transport 21 Plan covering the period 2005-2015 announced by the Minister for Transport on 1 November 2005 envisages the following LUAS line extensions:

2008
- Connolly-Docklands Extension (Red Line)
- City Centre Link for Red Lines and Green Line. Map showing proposed routes
- Citywest-Tallaght Link (subject to developer contribution)

2010
- Green Line Extension from Sandyford to Cherrywood

The Green Line Extension Sandyford to Cherrywood is presently (February 2006) the subject of a public hearing as part of the process of obtaining a Light Rail Order to build the extension. Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, expects work to commence 'within the year'.

2012
- City Centre to Liffey Junction

2013
- City Centre to Lucan

2015
- Green Line Extension Cherrywood to Bray

For the very distant future there have been proposals to link the Red and Green Lines via the southern suburbs of Dublin. This idea involves routing the Luas from Tallaght through Firhouse & Knocklyon and Balinteer, then to Dundrum or perhaps Sandyford. There is sufficient space for such a tram line alongside the M50 motorway, which runs more or less along this route.

Criticism

The Luas system is very popular with commuters, being seen as clean, dependable and reasonably good value. Nevertheless, there has been some criticism of the system and its pre-operational organisation.

Though the construction exceeded its budget, costing over €700 million, there were several delays and modifications throughout its construction. There were significant costs associated with building two physically separate tram lines at the same time. For instance, whereas one depot would ordinarily be used, two were constructed.

During the construction of both lines many commentators wrongly believed that that the lines were not being built to a standard 1435 mm (4' 8½") gauge. However, this arose from a misunderstanding of the requirements for upgrading the Green Line to metro standard. The Green line has been built to metro standard which requires that the centre to centre distance between the tracks is greater then for normal LRT track. The Red Line, which is not scheduled to be upgraded to metro standard has the normal LRT centre-to-centre distances. Both lines are incompatible with existing rail systems in Ireland, which use broad (1,600 mm or 5' 3") gauge. While the Luas does not need to be interoperable with heavy rail, any future Metro system can only be made compatible with either Luas or heavy rail, not both.

There was considerable disruption to traffic during construction work. Businesses also suffered immensely because of the disruption, and visitors to the city were inconvenienced. However, the Green Line has already proved extremely popular, bringing many more visitors into the city centre, and carrying a reported 700,000 passengers in its first month of operation. The Red Line is subject to similar heavy usage despite being serviced by a larger number (albeit shorter) trams. However, plans have been announced to upgrade Red Line trams to 40m.

Within hours of starting service, a Luas tram had collided with a car on Harcourt Street, while near-collisions were an occasional problem as of August 2004. A second collision with a car was reported on the Red Line at the end of August 2004, which at the time was undergoing final testing prior to the public launch due at the end of September 2004 hoever, in all cases of Luas/road vehicle collisions the fault has been the driver of the car or van trying to ‘beat’ the tram at a junction. September 2004 also witnessed the first collision between two Luas trams, at the crossover at the St. Stephens Green terminus.

The price of tickets has also been criticised, with a minimum fare of €1.40 being charged for an adult single journey within a single zone. Unlike other public transport in Dublin, where tickets must be shown every time you use the service, the Luas relies on ticket inspections. While originally about one journey in every three was subject to inspection, it is now more like one in ten. At present it is possible to buy a ticket from a point on the Green Line to a point on the Red Line, but it is not possible to make such a journey because the two lines are not connected.

In January 2006, it was disclosed that faults have been found with the LUAS tracks which could lead to excessive widening between rails, particularly on trains carrying a full load of passengers. Initial assessments from the RPA say that less than 5% of track will require remediation to eliminate the risk of any significant long-term deterioration. The repair work is expected to cost upwards of €10M, however this cost must be borne by the contracter who built the system and the RPA say it will not cause significant disruptions to service.

Trivia

As with all Dublin fittings and fixtures (see Irish statues and their nicknames), attempts have been made to give the Luas an alternative name: the Jerry Lee, the walz, the Joe and the Daniel Day, and, for the more literate folk, the CS (because of the similarity in pronunciation of 'luas' to 'Lewis'), the Jacks on the Tracks, the Train in The Lane, and the Snail on the Rail have been suggested, but such names are not (as of early 2006) popular and would not be immediately recognised by Dubliners.

Smartcard

In March 2005 the Luas smartcard was launched. This allows travellers to pay for travel on the Luas network but only cash payments (at the ticket machines) are possible. Credit is pre-loaded onto the smartcard and the customer must validate the card on the platform before boarding the tram and then again after exiting the tram. This is referred to as 'tag-on' and 'tag-off'.

A smartcard can be purchased at a Luas ticket agent or online [2]. The card costs €10, which includes a €3 non-refundable charge for the card, €3 of credit and €4 for a fully refundable 'reserve fund' which allows you to travel even if there is insufficient credit on the card for the journey. However, the card must then be topped up before another journey can be taken.

When using the smartcard for a single (one-way) journey fares are set to half the cost of a standard return fare. On the Green Line, the standard return fare through three zones is €3.80, so a single journey using the smartcard costs €1.90. Since a standard single fare is €2, the smartcard allows the user slightly cheaper fares for single journeys.

The Smartcard project is part of the Railway Procurement Agency's integrated ticketing system, which, when completed, should allow travellers to use the one card to pay for travel on all public transport in Ireland.