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STAKEHOLDERS IN THE Luas Cross City service have said they will conduct a review of signalling in and around O’Connell Bridge after a new longer tram caused issues this morning.
The new trams are longer than the width of O’Connell Bridge and one tram saw its rear carriage protruding out into traffic on Dublin’s south quays this morning.
The longer 55-metre tram can carry up to 380 passengers, more than the current capacity of 320, and are due to be officially introduced before the end of March.
Luas operator Transdev is trialling the new service ahead of that and this morning’s running of the 7.47am tram from Bride’s Glen caused problems once it got to the junction at O’Connell Bridge.
Because the tram is longer than the bridge, the longer Luas has to proceed straight over O’Connell Bridge from Westmoreland Street without stopping on the bridge.
This did not happen this morning and Transport Infrastructure Ireland has now said signalling will likely have to be changed at the junction.
“We will conduct a further review of the signalling arrangement and optimisation settings with Dublin City Council,” TII said in a statement this afternoon.
We are running trams only occasionally in the morning peak to ensure that the city gets a chance to get used to them. We will continue to work closely with all the stakeholders, particularly DCC and the National Transport Authority to ensure traffic signals are optimised and that disruption to all those travelling in the city is kept to a minimum as the system settles in.
Speaking after today’s problems blocked traffic on the busy quays, Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond said the ongoing issues with the new Luas Cross City are eroding public confidence in the service.
“It is the latest in a stream of farcical incidents that have all been well-flagged in advance yet responses have been lethargic at best, if existent at all,” he said.
Since the launch of Luas Cross City we have seen reduced frequency across the Green line, overly congested trams to the point that safety concerns were raised, the inability of commuters many of whom have prepaid tickets to even get onto to trams and absolute traffic carnage across much of the city centre on a daily basis.
Fianna Fáil’s Dublin spokesperson John Lahart TD also said that these issues were predictable:
The situation over the past 48 hours was predicted, it was warned that this would occur and yet the Minister for Transport ignored his duty to provide safer conditions for all road and transport users.
“A reasonable resolution must be found to this chronic congestion and must involve adequate input between all stakeholders operating in the city centre,” he added.
Lahart said that all parties will need to devise a solution before the longer trams are fully introduced next month, he explained the challenge they face:
“The tram will be longer than the width of O’Connell Bridge which means that when it passes over O’Connell Bride it actually has to clear it in one go. ”
“They estimate that the minimum crossing time is 55 seconds, the maximum crossing time is 90 seconds. Now at peak, a longer tram will cross every three minutes, if it takes 90 seconds, a minute and a half, that tackles 90 seconds for all the buses and cars and bikes coming off the four quays, to make their movements.”
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Will we still have to pay if we logon to BitBuzz using our FB/Twitter credentials?
For years now I’ve been places where I saw Bitbuzz and instantly discarded it as a viable wifi option as they charge you (€12.50 a day.. outrageous!) to use the service. I will use it now if all i gotta do is input my user credentials.
Can never understand why all bars/cafes don’t have free open wifi. In Vietnam nearly every place you walk into has this and it’s just so handy (and this being a 3rd world country). Just limit the speed so any saddo wanting to download 100gb of data wont get a use out of it while the 99% who simply wanna check mail, use maps, read a review or whatever can use it.
Here in Ireland it’s a case of there being no wifi, or wifi where the access code is 32 random characters that no staff seem to know….it’s a joke.
This is mainly because i think that every business that offers free wifi must by law know who is using it. Login through Facebook or Twitter is a way of doing this.
We need to move on… wifi should free and Country wide..
Any idiot in power looking out for the interest of big business should seek a job there rather than misrepresenting the people who voted them in
Nothing new here though? They are just allowing people use their Facebook or Twitter credentials to create an account just like many web sites including this one.
I wouldn’t trust just anyone with my Facebook details though. I don’t even trust Facebook with them.
They never get your Facebook credentials – these remain with Facebook. AT basic level, all they can access is your user public profile and friend list. These are publicly available to anybody. Anything else you voluntarily give up through permissions.
But I have all you can eat data…
Good for you but a lot of people are ready to go so this would be handy for them
I’ve so much down load allowance I don’t need free wifi
Same here. All-you-can-eat-just-dont-take-the-piss tarriff.
Where is bitbuzz free?? Always been asked to pay, no thanks
@ All Aboard to China
It’s free for 20- mins in all Insomnias for example and other participating outlets.
BitBuzz off.
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