Luas vs. The Buses

Kobie · 26-09-2003 2:00pm #1

I was on O'Connell St this morning & a thought occured to me:

Luas is a tram type thingy, so does that mean it'll have overhead wires? If so, how high are these wires going to be? They'd have to be up pretty high if double-decker busses are going to get underneath them, but the LUAS is only a single decker, so the arm that reaches the wires would have to be huge (on most trams & the DART they're only a few feet long).

Anybody know what the plan is?

K.

loyatemu · 26-09-2003 3:26pm

presumably the wires will be high enough for buses to pass underneath - but it looks like they won't be high enough to allow some of the larger st paddy's day floats to get through (according to a recent newspaper report)

netman · 26-09-2003 4:22pm

HAAHHHAH that's just brilliant!

i think they should put horses at each end of o'connell street and take away the overhead wires. then the trams would drive up to o'connell street, horses would pull the train to the other side, and then the tram could take off.

they could build stables on top of the spike, and invest in a cost-effective private jet for each horse to be taken down, and then brought back up in the evening when the trams stop.

this could be what they were planning all along, as i don't see any other useful purpose for that big needle anyway.

carrotcake · 26-09-2003 4:32pm

the junction between the belgard rd and walkinstown embankment rd should answer your question

De Rebel · 26-09-2003 5:35pm

Reading the title, it strikes me that we could have achieved 80% of what the luas will deliver by creating a couple of QBCs instead. Probably for about 20% of the cost. And that 20% (€125M, would have allowed some pretty special QBCs, with grade seperation at a few key intersections and the flexibility to serve living communities instead of serving 4 or 5 KM of wasteland in Dublin West.

Qadhafi · 26-09-2003 8:07pm

maybe the waste ground will get developed ??

The Luas is shaping up to be a proper waste elephant!! I have yet to figure out anything thats smart about it!!

Bee · 27-09-2003 1:55am

Yikes!

Dublin Bus has a carrying capacity of 150 million passengers a year and the Luas at some future date, a paltry 15 million! dO THE MATHS gIRLSZ N gUYZ

I wonder when we will have the first power outtage created by the unpoliced denizens of O'Connel St tossing a metal chain onto the power cables?

Bee

carrotcake · 27-09-2003 2:28am

obviously there's gonna be numbers like that when dublin bus serves the vast majority of the county. the luas is a bit more restricted!

DadaKopf · 27-09-2003 1:02pm

I'm sure they thought about overhead wires already. I know this is Ireland but, isn't it one of the most obvious questions?

QBCs don't work everywhere and the very nature of a tram-like system delivers a higher level of regularity to an on-the-road urban travel system.

I think the biggest mistake made by the government (not the RPA) was not to link up the lines. The Luas is not and cannot be an integrated system unless another enormous amount of money is freed up some time down the line to link them up. As a result, the bus routes can't be revised (to service stations, rather than centre-periphery routes) so we'll *still* have to rely on the buses, which means people will continue to be wedded to their cars.

But perhaps all the doom and gloom prohpecies are unwarrented. I, for one, try to be as optimistic as possible.

sceptre · 27-09-2003 11:33pm

Originally posted by Bee
I wonder when we will have the first power outtage created by the unpoliced denizens of O'Connel St tossing a metal chain onto the power cables?

It'll take anto and his mates a few years to figure out that the chain will have to long enough to touch the ground as well or it won't be earthed so I'd imagine it'll be a while before that happens.

LegacyUser · 27-09-2003 11:47pm

did anybody take a close look at the luas tracks, they are not like regular raised traintracks, they are the inverse of them, a tiny trench that the wheels will run in, got a close look at them on the bus and they are already full of stones, bottlecaps and the like, either the luas is supposed to crush these to dust or there will be a lot of derailings ?

drrnwbb · 28-09-2003 8:55am

Originally posted by bananayoghurt
did anybody take a close look at the luas tracks, they are not like regular raised traintracks, they are the inverse of them, a tiny trench that the wheels will run in, got a close look at them on the bus and they are already full of stones, bottlecaps and the like, either the luas is supposed to crush these to dust or there will be a lot of derailings ?

there is a pretty extensive tram system here in helsinki, and you can see the trams being cleaned most days. they have trucks that have a cleaning apparatus hanging underneath that cleans the track. dont know if that level of thought is involved in the luas project.

Originally posted by loyatemu
presumably the wires will be high enough for buses to pass underneath - but it looks like they won't be high enough to allow some of the larger st paddy's day floats to get through (according to a recent newspaper report)

anyone know the height of a double decker bus?, the overhead tram lines that are outside my house are pretty low in comparison with that of a double decker bus. then again, we dont have double decker buses here (except for a few tourist ones)

dw

dmeehan · 29-09-2003 9:21am

we dont have double decker buses here (except for a few tourist ones

those open-top ones
lol!

ok everyone, duck!:D

GerardKeating · 29-09-2003 10:50am

Originally posted by Kobie
so the arm that reaches the wires would have to be huge (on most trams & the DART they're only a few feet long).

The pantograph on the DARTS is actually quite long, almost 2 meters. Watch it going through a level crossing, it adjusts to the height of the over head cables, which are level crossing a high enough for Double Deckers...

gerard

sligoliner · 29-09-2003 4:33pm

The trams themselves are much taller than a single deceker bus the pantograph at full extent is much higher than a double decker. The pantograph has a pivot in the middle which compensates for the height. At non road intersection the overhead wire will be quite close to the tram roof

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of something like that

Victor · 29-09-2003 6:56pm

Double-decker busses are around 4-4.5 metres (about the same as the biggest of big trucks).

You can expect the power lines to be about 6 metres above ground on on-road sections. The DART cables at Merrion Gates level crossing is about 6 metres (enough for a large truck), but about 4.5 metres under Dublin Road bridge in Malahide (I counted the bricks!). You would need to be standing on the roof of a double-decker bus with your hands up to reach the cables.

If Anto and his mates want to short cables, they will need a 5-metre chain (heavy) and Anto better not be hanging on when it reaches the power cable. Dzzzt!

Luas vs. The Buses

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