LUAS Network + Future Expansion

Zebra3

Would Lucan not be best served by a Luas on the N4 with buses feeding in to both that line and the heavy rail line?

spacetweek

I've done a big update on this on the rail part of my IrishMotorways site (yes there is a rail part too).

http://irishmotorwayinfo.com/inex/rail/

It summarises everything we learned from the NTA's presentation, though I think the NDP review will rejig some of that.

spacetweek

I wanted to make a point about improving Red Line operation. We really should be consolidating some stations together as they were built far too close in some instances to please locals.

Drimnagh and Goldenbridge - should be closed and a new station built halfway with a new pedestrian bridge over the canal. This will serve future development in St. Michael's Estate and still be very close to the areas served by the existing stations.

Rialto and Fatima - should be closed and a new station built halfway. When the NCH opens I think a lot of passenger activity here will be people coming to and from the hospital.

In both cases closing two and building one new station instead of picking one to be closed will play better with locals as no one will feel like their rail service is being taken away. At Fatima we also need to keep in mind that depending on Lucan Luas alignment chosen, rail may continue east of here.

If they pick shared running with Red Line for Lucan Line (which I agree isn't a good idea) then speeding up the Red Line will become even more important.

The time savings will be small but on a central section and particularly with shared running they will be worth it. Rule of thumb is that every tram stop adds 1 minute to the journey time but this feels like a lowball estimate to me especially at rush hour. I'd say more like 1.5 mins. So if you number of tram stops by two due to consolidation you save 2-3 mins on the journey time through this section.

spillit67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123630066#Comment_123630066

I’m not here defending Lucan Luas as a priority. My point was that this obsession with running all of these services into SSG or OCS. The “majority of users” (which is what you said) won’t be from Lucan, but people along the line can connect in with other modes along the way.

There isn’t actually an obvious alternative to the Red Line. The obvious one would in fact be by College Green, which clearly is off the table (I’d actually like one myself).

So there’s three other choices really. I actually have no issue with any of them.

tom1ie

Surely Lucan would be best served by having dedicated QBC’s feeding into kishogue railway station to the south and Clonsilla to the North.
The railway that Kishogue is on (can’t remember the name of this route?) is quad tracked to hueston station where you have the PPT and RL LUAS

The railway that clonsilla is on connects with GL LUAS at broom bridge station and goes right into the CC.

Expanding parking at clonsilla and improving PT service to both of these stations by providing high frequency and high capacity busses operating in QBCs throughout Lucan is the most efficient way of getting people to use PT as opposed to building another rail line out that direction.

The frequency and capacity of the existing heavy rail lines would also have to improve to meet demand.

AngryLips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123630370#Comment_123630370

Does anyone have any expectations on how the revised NDP will shift/change the future plans of PT going forward?

AngryLips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123630375#Comment_123630375

Red line was built on the reserved alignment for a future dart. If you ask me, that makes it about as primed for upgrade to metro as the Green line south of Charlemont. They should just turn the inner city part of the red line into the central part of a lucan luas, while building a new east-west metro tunnel in the city centre for a future metrolink line 2 that incorporates the outer parts of the red line with a new inner city undergound.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123633566#Comment_123633566

No one really knows yet, but I would view a retrenchment away from large investments in PT as an impossibility.

At a guess, I'd say it'll be the last NDP, with a few roads with higher priority, and higher priority to Western rail projects. That's down to FF/FG talking so much about how the greens are responsible for roads being deprioritised, and the ministers involved (Sean Carney is minister of state for transport, and a bit western rail guy).

In other words, it'll be fiddling at the edges, nothing more.