Luas Speed/Timekeeping

Red Alert

Are the drivers sticking more rigidly to their schedules than before? Because some of them are going between the stations at a snail's pace, i've often done only 50kph, but yesterday's run at 30kph from Balally all the way in took the biscuit. And 'Due' comes up on the screen for at least one minute before the tram arrives, they used to always come at 1 minute to go or just when it went 'Due'.

OT: bonus prize if anyone knows why the headlights no longer come on between the stations at night? they used to dip automatically somehow (possibly from the loops?)

MarkoP11

The Luas boys have gone all safety mad in the last few weeks

On the red line the road junctions will not clear for the tram until its scheduled time so no point in being early

The journey time from Sandyford to St Stephen's Green has been reduced to 20 minutes

Red Alert

wow, that's interesting Mark - i had a bet you'd be the first to reply. i always thought the signals were activated by the RTS button and/or by the tram entering the loop area. bad decision by the RPA me thinks - it doesn't make it any safer!

MarkoP11

Strictly controlling the junctions does ensure a even spacing of trams, sad fact is trams don't have top priority at many junctions

RTS is request to start, its used particularly where the tram pulls away from a platform across a junction so the junction is only requested when the driver is able to proceed.

At certain red line junctions the software is now set that all trams must stop before crossing this is due to the problem with red light running by sucidal motorists.

They managed to chop 2 minutes off the green line time which actually means an extra tram per hour

Red Alert

So the driver has to hit RTS at Beechwood inbound so that the signal doesn't have to stay on for ages.

So basically even when the road junction is clear the tram has to move to the stop line, stop and then the signal clears? Fair enough, but should have been done when the real eejits were around when the red line started.

Pet

Are there speed limits imposed by Veolia/the government for the offstreet parts of both lines? I always wondered why the trams didn't go faster between Charlemont and Sandyford. They rarely ever hit 60, and are able to go to 80.