Luas Red Line Capacity

densification

With tens of thousands of houses to be built between Saggart, 'City Edge' (Naas Road Industrial Estates), Davitt Road Inchicore, etc how will the Luas Red Line cope?

The green line has a reasonable easy upgrade to full Metrolink spec, but what can be done about the Red Line??

Dart Underground could take a lot of pressure off the City Edge project, but it has been shelved for decades... Fully support the housing being built but Luas doesn't seem to be enough in terms of transport capacity.

L1011

Kylemore Road railway station is likely to be dusted off, DART Underground or no Underground. Also Lucan Luas is still solidly on the cards, albeit not started planning yet.

Both will help with some of this. Otherwise, all you can do is frequency which would require ever more aggressive prioritisation over other traffic - and there are conflicts with high frequency bus routes at multiple points!

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119891853#Comment_119891853

A Luas spur to College Green would be relatively cheap and would take significant pressure off the Red line through city centre.

densification

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119892494#Comment_119892494

That seems like a good idea. It would allow the middle (turn back) platform at Hesuton to actually be used...

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119892494#Comment_119892494

That spur could continue down Pearse Street to Ringsend.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119892494#Comment_119892494

Not much good for the rest of the red line. There's thousands of apartments being built around the Citywest shopping centre and permission for loads more. They should run shuttle buses Citywest to the new train station on the R136.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119907623#Comment_119907623

This would be great in theory but unfortunately I can't see it happening. The Green Luas would have major disruption to build a line across to Pearse.

Also, that section of road in front of old AIB / near Trinity is full of buses, so I don't think there's room to add an eastbound Luas line.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119907905#Comment_119907905

Some form of Metro West should be considered again. It could run mostly overground, so wouldn't have the expense of Metro North.

If the success of the N4 bus route shows anything, is that orbital routes can open up new opportunities and routes. This would take major pressure of the Luas system especially given planned developments along the Red route.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909299#Comment_119909299

The buses are an issue, however, they will have to be routed away from College Green when it is pedestrianised anyway.

The disruption to the Green Line would only be temporary and only to cross-city traffic. It would open up possibilities for an integrated LUAS system with trams from Tallaght able to turn on to the Northbound Green line.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119910366#Comment_119910366

A connection onto the Green Line northbound for sure but continuing across to Pearse Street would be a big issue I think.

Bus Connects, post College Green pedestrianisation, will have a major bus artery around Trinity College. I don't think the city will want any disruption to that artery.

medoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909325#Comment_119909325

Metro West would be a great addition to the Dublin network in the future. Far future by the way the speed of the more important projects are progressing. Especially if it connects to the main Dart lines and Metro North. Can’t remember the previous routing ideas but hopefully an interchange with Red Luas at Red Cow and the Finglas Luas is part of any future scheme.