LUAS Information Displays and Vaidators.

devnull

I haven't used the LUAS Red Line much recently but have had to do so over the last week or so and what has become really apparent is the general poor reliability of the platform screens, on tram displays and validators.

I've seen multiple stations with just stars showing on the top row, including the screen at Connolly that is supposed to show the trams leaving Busaras and the Connolly screen itself when the actual spur is in operation.

Then there are the red line trams which appear to be overtaking each other (yes, I know it's not possible) when heading towards The Point/Connolly, I actually saw trams for The Point and Connolly constantly swap around in order in the 10 minutes leading up to one coming though. And of course, when one did show up, it was going to the opposite place of what the display suggested.

There was even a glitch where the first tram showed 2 minutes, the second tram showed 9 minutes and the third tram in the list showed 2 minutes as well. At one point the first tram disappeared and you even had a 9 minute tram showing as before the two minute one.

And just to make things even more confusing, on Sunday at Busaras I came across a tram that the display on the platform was heading to The Point, the display said Tallaght on the front of the tram, the side said Saggart, the display inside said the next stop was Smithfield with the tram actually was heading to Connolly

And don't even get me started on the number of validators. At The Point on the side nearest the 3 Arena, there's one validator that is completely off, another one that dings like you tag off, but the screen is frozen and doesn't tag off and another validator that does tag off and the screen functions but there is no sound. I also have come across several other defective validators in other stops too.

And it seems they also still haven't fixed the issue that plagues Marlborough on the Green Line where the displays simply just from time to time show nothing but the following constantly

Brides Glen - Due
Sandyford - Due

A few years ago I used to use the LUAS daily and the displays and validators were generally really reliable, but over the past week or so I've seen more faults and issues that I can ever remember seeing before? Is this something that has crept in over the last while or are they trying to imitate Irish Rail from 10 years ago?

Rock Steady Edy

Presumably there's a mechanism to report issues? I've certainly noticed before that the "dings" on some of leap card validators have stopped working, which is annoying as you have to check the visual display to see if it's registered or not.

A year after it's introduction, bus route S8 still did not appear on the RTI display in Monkstown village, so I reported it to Go Ahead, who operate the S8. They said they escalate such issues to the NTA and after 5 months it was added. Didn't happen quickly, but it was eventually resolved.

bk

I guess some of this might just be down to ageing equipment and fleet.

The validators and ticket machines are over 20 years old now, though they likely don't want to replace them yet as we are likely to get new ones as the Next Gen Ticketing is rolled out over the next two years. Hopefully the NGT project will allow for other validation methods like in app validation, which would ease the issue with not enough validators.

They are also currently looking to completely replace the Red Line fleet with new vehicles and the Green line fleet is due to get a mid-life refresh.

The RTPI issues sound strange, but again there is also a NTA project for next gen AVL, so again perhaps they don't want to replace faulty equipment ahead of that.

p_haugh

The current Luas operating & maintenance contract for transdev is due to expire in September 2026, hopefully the NTA have stipulated for better maintenance upkeep as part of that (even if transdev do win the tender)

phonypony

One of the most stupid things with the validators I've seen on the Green line is that they reboot around 7am. At the beginning of the peak period they are all down at around the same time for a few minutes, so you can't scan your Leapcard. The next stop down the line then has the same issue a few minutes later. I'm sure it has caught out plenty of people when the inspectors get on, as they inevitably do 4 days out of 5 at that time on the Green line.

757TFFIU

I would concur with the comments made above regarding the general poor performance of platform validators, next tram displays, and on board displays. While I can't comment on the green line, certainly on the red line, general maintenance issues like this seem to have been going downhill for a while.

The next tram displays at Connolly now permanently display 'Next tram this platform' or 'Next tram opposite platform' incorrectly. I couldn't tell you when I last saw this aspect of the platform displays at Connolly to be correct and point passengers in the direct of what is actually the next tram when there's two trams in the station.

There were validators at Red Cow and Museum for quite a while, since fixed, that while they acknowledged the leap card by pinging, they didn't actually have a working screen. One at Connolly also went through a couple of days recently of displaying incorrect dates, including dates as far forward as 2027 (I used a different one, so don't know if it was incorrectly charging if transferring onto Luas from a 90 minute fare).