[PR] €51.2 million in Government Investment for 18 new trams

Victor

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=9046&lang=ENG&loc=2126

Cullen views tram extensions for Tallaght Luas line and announces €51.2 million in Government Investment for 18 new trams
17 April 2007

"Luas users should be aware, and proud, of the energy efficiency of their chosen transport mode."

Transport Minister, Martin Cullen, TD today (Tuesday 17 April 2007) visited the Luas depot in Dublin, which is located at the Red Cow, off the N7, where he met with mechanics and engineers who are preparing tram extensions for the Luas Red line.

Minister Cullen was accompanied on the visit by Mr Tom Mulcahy, Chairman of the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) and by Mr Brian Brennan, General Manager of Veolia Transport, the RPA's operating partners. The Luas Red line runs from Connolly Station to Tallaght in Dublin 24, serving 21 other stops on the route. Twenty-six trams operate on the Red line and these trams are now being extended from 30 to 40 metres to provide for a 40% increase in capacity. Minister Cullen was also present for the exchange of contracts between the RPA with the European manufacturing firm, Alstom Transport for the delivery of 18 new additional trams, to be used on both the Red and Green Luas lines. Government funding under Transport 21, to the value of €51.2 million has been provided for these extra trams.

Viewing the tram extension work at the depot works area, Minister Cullen said: "Since its introduction in 2004, Luas has proven to be an attractive means of transport for commuters. Last year (2006), 26 million passengers used the two Luas lines a 16% increase on 2005. Most of this growth was on the Tallaght Red line, which carried 13.7 million passengers - 24% up on the 2005 figure. The extensions now being provided for the Red line trams will allow for an additional five million passengers to travel on the line". The Minister added: "The first of the extended trams are due to be in service next month".

The Minister said that today's signed contract for the delivery of 18 new additional trams under Transport 21, will see the Red line and the Green line each get four of the new trams. Eight trams are being provided to facilitate the extension of the Green line from Sandyford to Cherrywood, with the remaining two to be used on the Connolly to Docklands extension on the Red line. Delivery of the new trams, which will be manufactured in Barcelona will begin in 2008. The contract for the new trams includes options to increase the fleet of trams for future extensions to the Luas lines, such as the proposed Luas spur line to Citywest.

Luas trams, which are electric power driven, use modern technology in terms of energy consumption and have a regenerative braking system installed. This means that when a tram brakes, its energy is not completely lost, as it would be for a car. Energy is fed back into the Overhead Catenary System (OCS) i.e. the system of overhead wires used to supply the electricity, for other trams to use. The portion of energy regenerated can reach 30%.

Minister Cullen said: "The large number of passengers using Luas results in a major reduction in the effective carbon emissions for commuting in any year. A comparison of the estimated CO2 emissions for a commuter using cars with the equivalent for Luas trams show a CO2 emission of 176kg of CO2 per person using the Luas, whereas a person driving a landrover/jeep will release 6,016kg of CO2, and driving a family car 1,664kg of CO2. We need to facilitate a switch in transport mode from the private car to public transport, thereby reducing green house gas emissions in the transport sector. Luas users should be aware, and proud, of the energy efficiency of their chosen transport mode."

Minister Cullen concluded: "Government investment of €51.2 million in 18 new trams will deliver a service that will offer greater choice and more frequent services to Luas customers. Through the Government's Transport 21 programme, Luas is delivering and will continue to deliver a modern and effective transport system in our capital city for thousands of people who use it every day. Metro North and Metro West will prove likewise."

Victor

RPA PR

patrickc

next month they start rolling out that'll be brilliant. are they just extending the 30m trams i.e adding on to them?

Victor

patrickc2006 wrote:

next month they start rolling out that'll be brilliant. are they just extending the 30m trams i.e adding on to them?

They will add two 5m sections to make the Red line trams look like the Green line trams.

I actually saw 'Baby' yesterday (a Red line tram on the Green line).

patrickc

I've seen it a few times myself, will they be extending "baby" (3012 is it) too?? the sooner the Luas doesn't have to stop at the red cow lights the better .

spacetweek

This project has been delayed to death and will be insufficient to cope with overcrowding anyway. I live in Smithfield and am unable to use the Luas much of the time. Passengers are left behind on the platforms, unable to get on.

patrickc

spacetweek wrote:

This project has been delayed to death and will be insufficient to cope with overcrowding anyway. I live in Smithfield and am unable to use the Luas much of the time. Passengers are left behind on the platforms, unable to get on.

yeh the luas does tend to cater for those further out, theres generally seats up to heuston and after it's overcrowded bigtime

Slice

yeh the luas does tend to cater for those further out, theres generally seats up to heuston and after it's overcrowded bigtime

Isn't there a Heuston-Connolly service?

D'Peoples Voice

Victor wrote:

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=9046&lang=ENG&loc=2126

Cullen views tram extensions for Tallaght Luas line and announces €51.2 million in Government Investment for 18 new trams
17 April 2007

"Luas users should be aware, and proud, of the energy efficiency of their chosen transport mode."

Transport Minister, Martin Cullen, TD today (Tuesday 17 April 2007) visited the Luas depot in Dublin, which is located at the Red Cow, off the N7, where he met with mechanics and engineers who are preparing tram extensions for the Luas Red line.

Call me a cynic, but can't help thinking that Cullen probably got DRIVEN out to the Depot in a Merc. No doubt I'm wrong, and he walked from Kildare Street to Abbey Street and hopped on a Red Line Luas out to the Red Cow.
But nowadays it just wouldn't surprise if he was driven out!

spacetweek

Slice wrote:

Isn't there a Heuston-Connolly service?

Can we get an answer on this please? I've been trying to figure out for ages if the promised Heuston-Connolly shuttles ever started up, does anyone have any info? I've never seen one and I use the Luas daily.

Ste.phen

Is that what the small "3rd" section of track / platform is for?

rednik

Hi
This service has indeed started and it runs early morning after eight each weekday. As the shunt in Heuston can only hold one tram it is therefore only possible to run one shuttle at the moment and the shuttle runs when the service at Heuston reaches a peak.

MarkoP11

More practical info is

It normally seems to depart at about 8:40am, so if you are on the 7:20 from Port Loais it should be there if you make a run for it

You will not find any real timetable info on the Luas site like the actual running times between stops or that there even is a shuttle service from Heuston

patrickc

yeh the shuttle does run as said only at peak tiemes, and again is generally very full leaving heuston

spacetweek

rednik wrote:

Hi
This service has indeed started and it runs early morning after eight each weekday. As the shunt in Heuston can only hold one tram it is therefore only possible to run one shuttle at the moment and the shuttle runs when the service at Heuston reaches a peak.

You seem to be saying that there is only 1 service per morning?

po0k

What about the rest of the country?

talkingclock

SyxPak, my very same first thought as well. 51M € just for Dublin and the rest of the country is still stuck with a joke of public transport!

murphaph

SyxPak wrote:

What about the rest of the country?

What about it? Looks fine where you are anyway.

67Cougar

Basically you have a full service on the redline and on peak a tram will run from HUE-CON-HUE, its depatched when needed on an adhoc timetable, there is also another spare tram that runs from RC-CON-RC again on an adhoc basis. Signals in the city can only support so many trams at anyone time...........or so I'm told:D

first 40m red tram should be going to test running within the next 2 weeks

po0k

murphaph wrote:

What about it? Looks fine where you are anyway.

Don't believe the hype.
There's atrocious traffic in and surrounding Galway city. The Salmon wier bridge should have 'outrigger' walkways put along the outside of the bridge, and the orthagonal S-bend between it and the Courthouse should be adjusted. Most of that '30 minutes' you spend sitting in your car studying the bumper in front of you.

That's one example.
Maybe Dublin wouldn't be so congested if there was competent infrastructure planning and execution in the other cities.

67Cougar: If the ad-hoc trams don't adhere to a regular timetable (as is my understanding of your post), then surely there must be some sort of realtime tram tracking and signalling?

67Cougar

yes your correct, all trams run to a set timetable but at peak the shuttle trams cannot be placed into this timetable as the headways would be too tight, basically the shuttle is put into the shunt to meet high demands from hueston, when its full the next inbound tram is held at James or on Stephens lane so the shuttle can depart............ or so I'm told:D

murphaph

SyxPak wrote:

Don't believe the hype.

So the WDC is telling porkies? I won't believe that

SyxPak wrote:

Maybe Dublin wouldn't be so congested if there was competent infrastructure planning and execution in the other cities.

Maybe Dublin wouldn't be so congested if there was competent infrastructure planning and execution in Dublin!

Your example is a fair one and I have no real beef with spending dosh on cities like Galway tbh, provided that Galway doesn't keep following Dublin't lead by sprawling out into the surrounding countryside. Keep it tight with medium-high density accomodation and then public transport begins to work effectively, even trams could be a reality as they are in similarly sized german cities. Unfortunately your traffic problems in Galway are mostly caused by people who insist on living remotely from the city but wanting to drive to work there. People want the semi or detached with the garden or worse still, the one-off down some boreen in the arsehole of nowhere but then whine about traffic problems as they all converge on the medieval city's streets. I see you are in the city itself so this may well not apply to you. If all the people living in rural Galway and Mayo just moved closer to work in Galway then they could walk to work or get a bus.

67Cougar

as for tracking and signaling, its a line of sight system, tracking is by loops set in the road and track, when a tram trips the loop its position changes in the central control room. Signals change as the tram trips the loops on approach to a junction similar to a car arriving at a junction and the demand signal being sent in to change the junction

Line of sight means that a tram driver drives exactly as any other road user, always driving at a speed which they can stop within a safe distance of anything infront of them

Andrew Duffy

The limits on the number of trams in the city centre at any one time are imposed by the power supply and by the need to allow motor traffic to pass through junctions.

Vazelothir

Victor wrote:

They will add two 5m sections to make the Red line trams look like the Green line trams.

R u sure its 2 x 5m sections? I saw what looked like a section on the back of truck going into Red Cow about a month ago, seemed to be one piece and it looked to me like it was more than 5m long?