LUAS Network + Future Expansion

I like the routing there actually. Walkinstown could possibly be easier as a cut and cover tunnel, or at least easier to pass through ABP in terms of sight lines and the generally low-lying suburbs.

Then again though, the works required for a tunnel would require almost full closure of the roundabout and the access road that the line would take either side, so maybe not a runner either.

Luas would be a good chance to somehow try and reorganise the mess that is the roundabout currently, although I’m really not sure how that would be done…

I think though that due to the development potential on the line, as well as in Tallaght, this route would probably be preferable as a second metro line - if such a thing was to ever happen - rather than a Luas, extending into the northside towards Coolock and Howth Jnct, opening the two industrial estates there for development similarly.

This would help with modal spacing - not having two heavy rail or two light rail lines side by side, but rather one beside the other - DART SW (heavy), Luas Red (light) Metro 2 (heavy) Luas Terneure/Knocklyon (light) Metrolink (heavy), Luas N11 (light) and DART S (heavy) with orbital busses and tram lines bringing people between each.

Just my personal thoughts on the matter though, obviously I’m not a professional, so take with a pinch of salt. Otherwise though I quite like the routing you’ve suggested.

To be clear I wasn’t personally agreeing to @tom1ie’s Crumlin route as a ‘Red Line extension’ nor do I think Lucan should be done as such.

Lucan should be a separate routing that maybe shares tracks with the Red Line on its segregated canal section, but it should then split off again to run into the city centre as a separate line.

Also, the routing down to Charlemont is a terrible routing for the Lucan Line, and honestly if they go with that route, I hope to god they don’t bother building the thing, certainly not ahead of other much not important projects anyway.

The main advantage of Luas Lucan from a network standpoint is it takes enormous pressure off the Red Line as an east-west city centre line. Charlemont and the canal routing is too far south and too far away from the city and the existing Red Line to be useful to commuters and will result in most Lucan passengers transferring to already packed Red Line trams at Blackhorse to actually get into the city centre.

Luas Lucan would be made worthwhile as a project, by providing a relief second east-west Luas alignment through the city, either down High Street/Dame Street or Cork Street/Cuffe Street.

In a perfect world the line would run along the canal between the Kylemore Road and Blackhorse where it would have a separate interchange station with the Red Line, run up the Tyrconnel Road into and through Inchicore, before crossing the Red Line at grade only once at James’s before heading down Thomas Street and into College Green (DART and Metro), on to Townsend Street (Tara DART and Metro) and through to Ringsend.

Even more ideally, the Red Line would actually take over this new city centre section for services from Tallaght (more useful connections), which could be built with 50-metre platforms to extend the Red Line trams, and have the Lucan Line operate on the more constrained 40-metre northside routing to the Point. This would leave the Lucan Line and the Red Line completely grade separated from one another with no at-grade crossings despite two interchanges.

We need to be a bit more glic with how we use our existing and future tram infrastructure and not be afraid to re-route some of our lines, as is quite common on the continent. Lucan could end up being one of the best Luas projects we could build in the next little while from a general network standpoint if it is done right and could be enormous for freeing up city centre and Red Line capacity.