Luas Power Failure

Tarabuses

Not only is the Green Line out of action since this morning but replacement buses southwards (11, 44) are diverted away from Nassau Street.

Hurrache

And the TFI app still factors in the green Luas line being available if you try use it to plan an alternative journey because of the Luas issue.

GiftofGab

When can we expect this to be working again?

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124059887#Comment_124059887

Whenever they find where the fault is and they fix it.

I’m not being smart but this is one of those failures where “how long is a piece of string” is appropriate.

This should give you a rough idea of what could have happened….

The Irish Times report tends to back this theory up stating that engineers are working their way along the line to find the source of the fault.

Luas Green line will not resume by evening peak commuter period

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2025/12/10/luas-green-line-will-not-resume-by-evening-peak-commuter-period/

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124059887#Comment_124059887

Whenever you ask someone who actually works there and might have an idea.

What were you expecting? 7:35pm on Friday 12th December?

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124059736#Comment_124059736

You can select Dublin Bus in the advanced settings as the preferred operator to overcome this (but this eliminates GoAhead too) or use Google maps without trams in the filters.

Rugbyf565

whole thing seems like a bit of a shambles

PixelCrafter

Do we have any explanation for what's going on ? I'm seeing stuff above about how it's sectionalised and it's not sectionalised etc…

That description sounds like it was wired based on 1980s Christmas lights methodology and you have to go around finding the one blown bulb…

tallaghtfornia

That description sounds like it was wired based on 1980s Christmas lights methodology and you have to go around finding the one blown bulb…

Love it 🤣

Tarabuses

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124060188#Comment_124060188

A very good analogy. Could this go on for days if they don't find the right bulb?

Hurrache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124060029#Comment_124060029

I know that, but the point is that it's offering up journeys, flagging some as real time, for a service that's not running when you're planning a trip with leave now as the option.

markpb

How did an issue with the Green line also affect the Red line and why was it only briefly? Could it have been deliberately isolated while they were checking the Green line near the crossing?

And how was the B1 extension to Cherrywood only taken out of commission at 1pm when the core section had been broken hours earlier?

Bonus points for the Luas website not updating to reflect the additional B1 outage for nearly 45 minutes after it happened. And of course the NTA contact centre were also unaware of the extra outage.

The RTIS data not reflecting the outage doesn’t surprise me - they can’t be bothered to update it for scheduled maintenance so it’s no surprise they didn’t do it today. The NTA can be such a frustrating shambles sometimes.

Jamie2k9

https://www.luas.ie/travel-updates/

Luas Engineers have identified that the fault lies within a critical low-voltage safety system known as the 48-volt system.

This is not the overhead power system that powers the trams. Rather, it is part of the safety network that links substations to the central control room and allows power to be safely controlled and monitored across the line.

In simple terms, this safety system is designed to shut down power to the overhead lines in the event of an emergency. The system is currently detecting a fault condition and, for safety reasons, will not permit the power to be fully restored until that condition is resolved.

Rugbyf565

So no green line again today? This could get messy

Dublin Calling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061190#Comment_124061190

Day two of 'We don't know what we are doing'. There is lack of technical expertise and planning. We saw the same when a stretch of overhead line was pulled down between Ranelagh and Charlemont a few years ago. Nothing happening to replace it for a few days, as the had to fly in contractors form Germany.

bikeman1

It’s going to be a mess this morning on the Southside with the Green line off. There is no resilience in the system that could cover this massive lack of public transport capacity.

Hopefully some managers have sense to allow working from home today for basically anyone near the Green line at all.

And of course we have no joined up thinking, so I imagine if one goes to Broombridge this morning, you will see many getting off the train and head for the luas that is not running.

Why? Because no announcements, no app information, poor communication all from TFI.

Dublin Calling

The management have a lot to answer. I called the Luas Depot over an incident a few days ago. No one answered. I then looked up the current number on the Luas website and called it. It is a centralised TII number to do everything. Overloaded with menu options. Got talking to a girl who was not a native English speaker. Managed to leave details, she called back for more into. I have leard nothing since. You would not want to be calling them over an immediate life or death situation…

Rugbyf565

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061235#Comment_124061235

Yup that’s what happens when you get a private company (transdev) to run a public service, they don’t give a **** about the social contract they have with the public. No expertise, no customer support, poor logistics.

Rugbyf565

My morning commutes been an utter disaster so far, two ghost buses, two buses that were too filled to the brim to stop and a very messy route. Dublin’s just not fit for purpose when the luas is down.

Jamie2k9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061327#Comment_124061327

Yeah because our publicly owned operators were know for the customer service…

Secondly it's TFI who took over customer service from all transport operators.

The operators do what they are told by the NTA.

SaxySaxSolo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061488#Comment_124061488

No different to any other day of bus services so ;)

SaxySaxSolo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061213#Comment_124061213

Yeah this is what happens when a company loses expertise in repairs by making the solution to every fault be "just swap out the entire part with a new one and send it to the manufacturer to fix".

It saves time and money for small things but when bigger faults happen you're left without service because a part needs to be made and then shipped to you or the manufacturer has to send out people who know what to do.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061611#Comment_124061611

I said something similar in another thread a couple weeks ago and I got berated by people telling me they never have problems getting the bus.

KLF

Last night, Harcourt became a terminus again

OrangeNinja

I'm sorry how hard can it be to fix a fault? Do they not have contingency built in for this sort of event.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061681#Comment_124061681

I was in the control centre for the Miniature World model railway museum in Hamburg a few years ago. This place looked like mission control in Cape Canaveral. If a fault happened somewhere on their 16km of track, they could instantly tell where it was.

It's both funny and sad that a model railway has better fault tolerance than a real world system.

Ronald Binge Redux

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061215#Comment_124061215

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061578#Comment_124061578

Fascinating. So it's a TFI decision to have a train pull into Hazelhatch at 2008 and an L59 bus depart at 2008 with no bus for another half hour? Let's not kid ourselves that TFI always know what they are doing.

GiftofGab

This needs to be up and running before this evening. Thursday is a big day for shopping in city centre and there's also tons of Christmas parties tonight.

757TFFIU

How long do Transdev have in their current contract to operate Luas?

While this power failure issue with the Green Line is one of the more extreme incidents, there is an ongoing issue with maintenance and general communication with customers. Even discounting issues that are beyond Transdev's control, such as the fire near George's Dock, there are persistently delays, trams being pulled out of service without explanation on the Red Line or the destination changing mid-route. Trams going to Saggart regularly get pulled from service at Red Cow, or the destination is changed to Tallaght at Belgard. Faulty Leap Card validators are a regular occurrence, certainly on the Red Line.

The next tram displays are regularly not updated when there is an issue (for example, yesterday morning when trams were only going in as far as Smithfield, I walked the rest of the way to my workplace. The next tram displays at Four Courts or Jervis were not displaying any information to indicate that people couldn't board at these stops, and were still showing a countdown to the next trams. They'd had enough time to update this, as the driver of my tram had announced at Blackhorse that the tram would have to terminate at Smithfield).

The onboard next station displays on the Red Line regularly display an incorrect next station (for example, my tram into the city centre this morning displayed Fettercairn as the next stop all the way into the city this morning).

Even simple enough things like customer information on platforms isn't updated. The information on the inbound platform at Red Cow hasn't been updated to acknowledge the existence of buses G1 and 60, even though they have been in operation a good while at this stage. The information still references Bus Eireann route 4 to Waterford calling at Red Cow, even though that route hasn't called at the Red Cow car park since covid times.

There just seems to be a general indifference towards customers, and I think that Transdev do need to get their act together before they are awarded a further contract to operate Luas.

thenuisance

They've narrowed it down to being somewhere between Broombridge and O'connell St. I'm prepared to bet that this is some lad with a digger somewhere. I'd look at the segments with construction work on them first.

I think this is a design fault in the original system. There should be a parallel line to allow some kind of automated loop back check for each segment.

The Xmas tree light analogy is good - except I think in this case the lights aren't visible.

I remember in the old days when i worked a lot with computer hardware - we'd have had two teams working on a problem like this - one taking random inspired (but usually informed) guesses as to where the fault might be - and the other working methodically from A to Z. The guesswork team usually got there first but the important point was that the other team would always get there eventually.

This is an issue that will take as long as it takes. Given that it's a critical safety feature I would guess that there will be a period of checks before they can re-comission the lines. Particularly if they can't identify what caused the failure.

I have sympathy for the team doing this - they will be pressured by a whole phalanx of management abusing them for not giving them a time for when it will be back. It will be back when it's back is the only reasonable answer.

Good luck guys.

Rugbyf565

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124061611#Comment_124061611

I’m fully in agreement that the bus service is already terrible (have experienced lots of ghost buses/ no shows before) but I’ve been told by multiple colleagues today that many routes were operating way beyond capacity as a result of the Luas being off.