As we have previously reported the Cross City line on Luas opened to the public on Saturday 9th December providing the opportunity for much better connections between the Green and Red lines in the centre of Dublin. The new service pattern has seen Green line services extended through the city to Broombridge (or around the new loop line and back to St Stephen’s Green and beyond) but there have been some “teething problems” with this new service leading to a reduction in peak services.
Passenger numbers on the new line have been high and coupled with tram availability issues Luas have made the decision that at peak periods the frequency of trams will be slightly reduced. The service is being constantly reviewed and minor changes are hoped to be made according to a statement released by Luas.
A noticeable improvement is likely to be seen when seven new 55m Citadis trams built by Alstom come into service. This is due to be by the end of March with trams currently being built at La Rochelle, France. The first of the seven – numbered 5027 following directly on from the last order of Citadis 402 trams – was delivered to Dublin in two parts on 13th November 2017 (a video of the delivery can be seen at on the Luas Cross City website. The seven new trams will have capacity for 380 passengers.
As part of the introduction of these new trams work is required at Sandyford Depot which in turn means that from 5th January until September 2018 the Park and Ride site here will be closed to the public.