Luas stupidity. Not surprised.

Pal

I was told today that I could not board LUAS at Jervis to go to Connolly.

You can only get off LUAS at Jervis !

You must go to Smithfield to board the tram. Smithfield is about the same distance away from Jervis than Connolly in the opposite direction !

Who makes up these daft rules ? Mary O'Rourke still around ?

enterprise

This is a tempory measure at Jervis and Abbey street due to crowd control fears. After the hugh crowds when the Green line opened Connex and the RPA are taking no chances.

Also Bus Aras is closed until next Monday for the same reason.

If, crowds are not as big as expected the RPA might relax some of the restrictions.

pork99

I'd also be very interested to see how it works at peak hours at Heuston Station. There should be hordes of people alighting from inbound trains who need to get into the city centre or on to Connolly Station but the Luas carriages they will attempt to board will already be packed with people fron Tallaght etc.

I wonder are they planning to run extra services originating from Heuston to allow for this?

Zaph0d

pork99 wrote:

I wonder are they planning to run extra services originating from Heuston to allow for this?

Rumour has it that they are.

Lenny

They arent putting any extra trams on yet during he free period
the longmile road is crazy today from it,

BrianD

the longmile road is crazy today from it,

In what way? There should be no difference in traffic as the red line has been operating the timetable for the last few weeks. In otherwords, the same number of trams have been passing through the Long Mile and Naas Rd junction today as yesterday and the day before. I would guess that they will have extra services on for the w/end to cope with the crowds.

Idbatterim

I thought they were operating a short running i.e trams from heuston to connolly and back thus avoiding the no one being able to get on a heuston due to the teams being packed.

dazberry

BrianD wrote:

In what way? There should be no difference in traffic as the red line has been operating the timetable for the last few weeks.

I noticed the lights at the junction of James' St/Bow St.?/Thomas St were resequenced at some point between Friday morning and Saturday late afternoon last weekend - so I think there is still some tweaking going on tbh.

Pretty "agressive" timings too, one Luas went thru' but it still took the bus three cycles (about 6 minutes) in a queue of about 25, and there was no traffic to meet once it past.

D.

BrianD

Idbatterim wrote:

I thought they were operating a short running i.e trams from heuston to connolly and back thus avoiding the no one being able to get on a heuston due to the teams being packed.

This is still not confirmed. I spoke to the guy responsible for it and they were still "modeling" it to see if the power system would support short running between the two stations. Having said that I saw a tram parked up on the siding at Heuston so they must be trying it.

Victor

BrianD wrote:

This is still not confirmed. I spoke to the guy responsible for it and they were still "modeling" it to see if the power system would support short running between the two stations. Having said that I saw a tram parked up on the siding at Heuston so they must be trying it.

Speaking to Frank Allen at an open day, he was saying that they can bring the frequency on Heuston-Connolly down to 3-4 minutes per direction. After that, they need to install extra power. I imagine it's down to X many vehicles per electrical circuit.

BrianD

Yeah, the calculate the load as a function of the number of trams on the section, size of motor, GVW of the tram itself with passengers.

Capt'n Midnight

Surely they could have upgraded the power BEFORE they opened the line even if it delayed it a short while. Even if they have regenerative braking it's not rocket science since all you need to do is see the actual power requirements of other trams of that type in other cities. Since most of the power usage is in accelerating and on hills limiting the speed there during peak hours, when you probably aren't going to get as clear a run anyway, might be enough.

Victor

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Surely they could have upgraded the power BEFORE they opened the line even if it delayed it a short while.

If they did it before opening, it wouldn't be an "upgrade". Would it?

They have a built in ability to increase service by about 30%. Adding, say, another 2 substations (to supplement O'Connell Street and Four Courts) would require suitable sites and cabling from the ESB network. Something that presumably be done, but more importantly, won't impinge hugely on services.

Bee

dazberry wrote:

Pretty "agressive" timings too, one Luas went thru' but it still took the bus three cycles (about 6 minutes) in a queue of about 25, and there was no traffic to meet once it past.

D.

And at numerous other junctions buggering up the rest of the traffic at peak times.

Exactly as predicted by numerous folk that could see the major looming defects in an on street tram system

Bee

sliabh

Bee wrote:

And at numerous other junctions buggering up the rest of the traffic at peak times.

Exactly as predicted by numerous folk that could see the major looming defects in an on street tram system

My understanding was that one of the reasons for going with on street trams was to deliberatly take road space from motorists (as car based commuting is unsustainable so light rail is a more efficient use of the road space)

So predicting something that was designed in is not that hard to do. The Luas is performing as expected.

Flukey

There are crazy traffic light sequences all over the place, so having it near the Luas is nothing new. There are places where you'd barely have put your foot on the accelerator to move when the lights would go amber. As to getting on at Jervis to go to Connolly, sure you'd walk it nearly as quick or in the time you'd be waiting for the next one, unless you were loaded down with shopping or something. I was on the Red Line yesterday and it got into town quickly enough, just under 50 minutes.

BrianD

My understanding was that one of the reasons for going with on street trams was to deliberatly take road space from motorists (as car based commuting is unsustainable so light rail is a more efficient use of the road space)

I don't that was the intention at all. Most trams run on-street elsewhere in the world and trams are designed with this in mind. As the Tallaght line, for example, is a new route and there was no "reservation" for it the only available and cost effective method is to run it on the street.

In reality, the Red Line won't make much difference to traffic volumes on the Naas Rd. as this is a national route with the majority of vehicles going to areas not served by the Luas.

spacetweek

enterprise wrote:

If, crowds are not as big as expected the RPA might relax some of the restrictions.

I got on at Jervis on the 30th heading into town so they must have changed their policy here. However Busaras is still closed, though Connolly Station is just up the road anyway.