Luas not running FYI

patrickc

http://rte.ie/news/2007/1011/fire.html

mikemac

Dublin's James Street has been closed to inbound traffic because of a fire in a building.

The Luas Red Line is only running between Connolly and Smithfield and Tallaght and Blackhorse stations.

I'm not going to knock their saftey procedures. I assume they had a set procedure in place for something like this and saftey comes first.

But if the fire is on James St, surely they can still shuttle between Connolly and Heuston?
Why the need to stop at Smithfield, that's quite a distance from the fire.
I'd of thought it'd be safe to go to Heuston.

The same goes for the other side. Blackhorse is also far from James St. Surely they can get closer and serve more stations.

Only reason I can think of is maybe the power lines have been switched off.
Any experts know?

rx8

Smithfield and Blackhorse are the two stations where they can shunt trams past one another from one track to another with points,switches etc.

patrickc

yes they always change at these spots whenever they cannot get down one of the main streets. think as just said it's the only place where they can swop safely, although being that the luas is multi directional don't see how they can't work something out where the driver just swops ends.

Ste.phen

They still need to get from one set of tracks to the other

rednik

The information given was wrong, the service operated from Connolly to Heuston and not Smithfield. As there is a shunt in Heuston there is no need to crossover.
Depending where the section isolators are located will dictate where the service can run between when the power is knocked off.