Luas Cross City (Line BX/D) [now open]

Chivito550

What is going on with green line tonight? I had to leg it for asouthbound LUAS at Beechwood as there were no more listed in next 20 mins. I looked through the stops and it was only when I got to Parnell did I find info on the next LUAS which was 19 mins away from there (with Parnell being 15-17 mins or so from Beechwood). So effectively when I got the LUAS, it was the last one for about 35 minutes.

The website says everything is operating normally.

Very weird.

xper

Long trams can be troublesome beasts alright:
New subways turn out to be too long for Amsterdam Central Station

Jamie2k9

http://www.98fm.com/Luas-Cross-City-Came-Under-Pressure-To-Open-Early

The Luas Cross City came under pressure to begin operating earlier than planned.

New documents obtained by the Sunday Business Post showed Transdev initially planned to begin operating in January.

The Luas Cross City launched on December 9th, however it's now been revealed that this was earlier than planned - and that the State pushed Transdev to open early.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland requested the service begin at the end of November and Transdev rejected this by saying it would increase technical and operational risks.

The latest emails, sent in September, released by the TII show that Transdev said that Luas Cross City would not be in a position to be opened for passenger service on 30 November.

However, the €368 million tram line was launched on time and on budget last December - but there has been traffic disruptions ever since.

Luas passengers have complained of overcrowding on trams while Dublin Bus have diverted dozens of routes away from College Green.

LXFlyer

Chivito550 wrote: »

What is going on with green line tonight? I had to leg it for asouthbound LUAS at Beechwood as there were no more listed in next 20 mins. I looked through the stops and it was only when I got to Parnell did I find info on the next LUAS which was 19 mins away from there (with Parnell being 15-17 mins or so from Beechwood). So effectively when I got the LUAS, it was the last one for about 35 minutes.

The website says everything is operating normally.

Very weird.

A protest march caused a meltdown.

LXFlyer

bk wrote: »

Yes, it was definitely a good plan, probably came up with by both NTA/DB and also probably DCC planners. As usual it was the city councilors who almost bottled it.

However DB did seem to lose their nerve about it. NTA were very clear the entire time that the College Green Plaza needed to go ahead and the redirection of buses up Parliament St. DB seemed to prevaricate a bit about it and seemed to panic for a while there. Fortunately they seem to have regained their nerve and they and the NTA seem to be singing out of the same hymn book now.

I don't think that is representative of the situation at all regarding Dublin Bus. DCC councillors turned down the Parliament St contra-flow bus lane option, and a revised plan was prepared by DCC that was divorced from any form of reality in terms of how bus services could operate. At that point the plan was put forward to ABP, who then invited submissions on it.

It was at that point that DB put forward their objections to it, which was the correct time to do so. I don't see that as "losing their nerve" at all. They quite rightly pointed out the deficiencies of removing Parliament Street as a route option and therefore, suggested the need to retain College Green as a through east/west route for buses.

They have been actually consistent on this all the way through in their public comments. I think that you're being extremely disingenuous with your comments about panic etc.

bk wrote: »

Yes, plus with BusConnects, I suspect we will see a big reduction in the numbers of cross city routes. JW seems to not like them from what I've read.

Services that turn around and back out seems to be the norm for him. I can see a lot of services ending up turning around at College Green and D'Olier St/Wetmorland St.

I don't see that happening at all being honest - where would buses lay over in the city centre before heading out again? To operate a timetable requires lay over time between journeys at either end, and there isn't simply the road space to do that in Dublin city centre any more.

Removing cross-city services would be a serious worsening in the service, and frankly I don't see that being acceptable to the large numbers of people who use cross-city routes every day. It's one thing connecting between corridors (which this plan apparently will propose), but it's a whole different ball game removing large numbers of direct cross-city options.

Chivito550

I thought Morning frequency was supposed to be back to normal in March folks. Standing at Balally and almost a LUAS worth of people are at the platform trying to squeeze on.

LXFlyer

Chivito550 wrote: »

I thought Morning frequency was supposed to be back to normal in March folks. Standing at Balally and almost a LUAS worth of people are at the platform trying to squeeze on.

The new trams aren’t all in service yet (only 2 so far).

markpb

Chivito550 wrote: »

I thought Morning frequency was supposed to be back to normal in March folks. Standing at Balally and almost a LUAS worth of people are at the platform trying to squeeze on.

In January, TII and Transdev were saying that all the new trams would be in service by March. Recently this has changed to “in a few months”, whatever that means. I wonder if the tram testing is taking longer than expected or if they’re so busy trying to sort out the city centre, that they don’t want to introduce all the new longer trams until that’s done?

LeinsterDub

Taxi ban came into force today didn't it ? Buses moving any better?

ArmaniJeanss

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Taxi ban came into force today didn't it ? Buses moving any better?

A minor (no injuries) crash between a 20 seater minibus and a singledecker at the bottom of Kildare St was causing tailback problems this morning around 8.30 so hard to know what if any difference the taxi ban might have made.

Peregrine

Is the morning taxi ban well signposted? And is it adhered to?

I won't be around there this week but I'd like to know how it's working.

hmmm

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

The latest emails, sent in September, released by the TII show that Transdev said that Luas Cross City would not be in a position to be opened for passenger service on 30 November.

That's shocking, and we're heading into a fourth month of public transport near-chaos as a consequence.

In any normal country, the Minister responsible would have been front and centre on this decision.

LeinsterDub

hmmm wrote: »

That's shocking, and we're heading into a fourth month of public transport near-chaos as a consequence.

In any normal country, the Minister responsible would have been front and centre on this decision.

Near chaos? A tad hyperbolic no?

Sierra Oscar

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Taxi ban came into force today didn't it ? Buses moving any better?

I flew through D'Olier Street / College Green today on the bus, but best to wait a few more days before casting any final judgement.

markpb

hmmm wrote: »

In any normal country, the Minister responsible would have been front and centre on this decision.

Actually they wouldn’t and the fact that our MoT has any say in resolving this shows just how fragmented transport planning is in Dublin.

The Minister for Transport is head of a department that sets policy for transport (and other things). They’re definitely not responsible for traffic lights, tram sizes, where taxis can drive and how to resolve the current conflict on College Green.

People who definitely should be involved (in decreasing order of priority) are DCC councillors, DCC staff, TII, NTA, Transdev, Dublin Bus. Once the decision to run the tram lines through College Green had been made, the only people who can really make it work are DCC. The staff appear to be making an effort to resolve it but the councillors are struggling with the impact of that. Everyone else is more or less subservient to that decision making process.

Jamie2k9

New tram failed in the city center this evening, probally be felt in the morning peak.

hmmm

markpb wrote: »

Actually they wouldn’t and the fact that our MoT has any say in resolving this shows just how fragmented transport planning is in Dublin.

We're not Russia with thousands of kilometres of train track - we're a small island with a full time Minister for Transport, who is in office at a time when the largest public transport initiative in the country goes live, in a capital city where it will have the biggest impact. Despite the game of "transport pass the parcel" going on, the Minister absolutely bears political responsibility for the impact of LUAS cross city.

If the DoT had raised a red flag to say that LCC should not have gone live at the time it did, that would have been one thing. Instead they seem to have hid behind everyone else by claiming it had nothing to do with them, after the photo opportunities were had of course.
https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2017/1209/926142-luas/

hmmm

How is this even possible
https://twitter.com/diarmy/status/973303568085155845

Jamie2k9

hmmm wrote: »

How is this even possible
https://twitter.com/diarmy/status/973303568085155845

As I pointed out above, there was a tram failure and one was pushing the other.

LXFlyer

hmmm wrote: »

How is this even possible
https://twitter.com/diarmy/status/973303568085155845

One of the two new trams in service failed between O’Connell Bridge and Abbey St after 6pm (incidentally it does actually fit into that section of road without blocking the junctions).

I imagine (looking st the photo) they are using the tram behind it to push it forward.

FreudianSlippers

I actually noticed on OCS last Thursday around 7pm (I think) that there were about 4 trains in a row going up OCS, one right after the other and all empty.

markpb

hmmm wrote: »

We're not Russia with thousands of kilometres of train track - we're a small island with a full time Minister for Transport, who is in office at a time when the largest public transport initiative in the country goes live, in a capital city where it will have the biggest impact. Despite the game of "transport pass the parcel" going on, the Minister absolutely bears political responsibility for the impact of LUAS cross city.

If the DoT had raised a red flag to say that LCC should not have gone live at the time it did, that would have been one thing. Instead they seem to have hid behind everyone else by claiming it had nothing to do with them, after the photo opportunities were had of course.
https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2017/1209/926142-luas/

Comparisons to Russia are irrelevant. There is nothing the MoT can do about how the roads inside Dublin are managed, it's not his job, his role or within his authority. If he gets involved, all he can do is talk.

Plus he's a waste of space and is busy objecting to every piece of planning permission within a ten mile radius of Stepaside.

Beta Ray Bill

markpb wrote: »

Plus he's a waste of space and is busy objecting to every piece of planning permission within a ten mile radius of Stepaside.

:D:D:D:D:D

LXFlyer

markpb wrote: »

Comparisons to Russia are irrelevant. There is nothing the MoT can do about how the roads inside Dublin are managed, it's not his job, his role or within his authority. If he gets involved, all he can do is talk.

Plus he's a waste of space and is busy objecting to every piece of planning permission within a ten mile radius of Stepaside.

Quite correct.

The people who should be held accountable are the people in the RPA who proclaimed that all existing traffic and the trams could happily co-exist and the Minister for Transport who brought the project to cabinet for approval without (it would appear) asking pertinent questions. He’s the current Taoiseach btw!

Something tells me that won’t happen (or that he won’t see it as a problem).

DCC officials follow on from that for not having any form of plan B, and local councillors for kow-towing to vested interests.

D.L.R.

hmmm wrote: »

We're not Russia with thousands of kilometres of train track - we're a small island with a full time* Minister for Transport

*Unfortunately we DON'T have a full time Minister for Transport.

Transport is lumped in with tourism and sport, two substantial briefs in their own right.

L1011

And he thinks he has justice and OPW responsibility too, when Garda stations come in to it

Jamie2k9

The same tram 5027 failed again this evening...

LXFlyer

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

The same tram 5027 failed again this evening...

It was 5028 that failed the previous night on O’Connell St?

Whichever of the two extended trams failed this evening, did so outbound on the bridge at Dundrum after 18.30.

Between these failures, the daily capacity issues, the poor schedules south of Sandyford and the city centre problems, people (especially those south of Sandyford who have fewer bus alternatives) are getting very very frustrated about this.

Sierra Oscar

Looks like a tram failed in Stillorgan this morning. What is going on?

https://twitter.com/luas/status/973840951608270849

LXFlyer

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

Looks like a tram failed in Stillorgan this morning. What is going on?

https://twitter.com/luas/status/973840951608270849

Quite simply, three failures in three days. This one caused a 40 minute gap in peak service inbound.

Failures can happen and unfortunately rail failures tend to cause mayhem. But three in as many days is unprecedented.

The question is why are these failures happening?

People are not going to stand for this - the total lack of effective communication from Transdev and TII is shameful.