There are plans to expand capacity on the Luas from June, especially the Red Line

There’s a plan to add capacity on the Luas from 1 June this year, by tweaking the timetables, putting on more trams, and hiring more drivers to operate them.

The Red Line, in particular, is regularly overcrowded at peak times and at weekends, which puts some people off using it.

A year ago, a spokesperson for the National Transport Authority said the NTA was working with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) “to implement a revised timetable for Luas to increase service frequencies on both Luas lines, including at weekends, using existing tram rolling stock”.

The NTA oversees transport nationwide. TII, among other things, controls the Luas’s infrastructure, and contracts out the job of operating it to the company Transdev.

Now TII’s operations manager, Donal Dunne, says that because the Luas is so busy, and projections show this increasing going forward, TII wants to increase its capacity.

It proposed a timetable change to achieve this. However, after negotiations with Transdev, the two sides agreed to a smaller increase than TII had proposed.

Why didn’t Transdev give TII the increase it asked for? A Transdev spokesperson didn’t reply to a query on that sent Thursday.

A TII spokesperson, in an email with a subject line that included “agreed text with Transdev”, said that “When TII makes a request to Transdev to implement a timetable change, Transdev need to consider its deliverability.”

“They need to consider whether they will be able to hire the necessary drivers, security staff, technicians and engineers to support the additional services,” he said. “They also need to consider the availability of maintenance ‘pit’ lanes within the depots, and the current condition of the fleet.”

Red Line

A presentation from Transdev titled “2025 Timetable Change Rev 3”, dated 9 December 2024, lays out the current situation on both Luas lines and the proposed changes.

On the Red Line, “Capacity in peak hours and on weekends” and “Run time deficit between scheduled and achieved” are listed as “Challenges”.

Why is there a gap between scheduled services and actually delivered services?

Firstly, because the Luas is so busy, a TII spokesperson said.

“High patronage leads to longer dwell times at stops, as passengers take longer to board and alight vehicles which are approaching capacity,” he said.

Secondly, trams get stuck in traffic in places where they share the road with motor vehicles, he said, and this slows them down.

To increase capacity on the line, TII wants Transdev to run more trams at certain times.

At the moment, there are 17 inbound departures from Red Cow into town between 8am and 9am weekdays, the TII spokesperson said. The presentation says TII asked for an increase to 20.

There are 14 outbound departures from Abbey Street between 4pm and 5pm weekdays, the spokesperson said. The presentation says TII asked for an increase to 17.

TII also asked for trams to run more frequently on Saturdays and Sundays, the presentation shows.

The current schedule is meant to have them arriving at each stop every 6 minutes on Saturdays, the TII spokesperson said. The presentation says TII asked for that to be cut to 5 minutes from 9am to 8pm on Saturdays

On Sundays, the schedule has trams arriving every 10 minutes on Sundays. TII asked for that to be cut to every 6 minutes between 11am and 8pm on Sundays.

This would all require putting more trams into service at peaks. After negotiations, the two sides compromised on how many more.

For example, TII asked for “peak vehicle requirement” (PVR) for weekday morning peak hour to increase from 27 to 32. After negotiations, TII and Transdev agreed on 29, the TII spokesperson said.

“For the Red Line, there will be an increase in scheduled kilometres on Saturdays of about 18% and on Sundays of about 17%,” the TII spokesperson said.

On weekdays, there “will be an increase service kilometres of about 4%”.

But another change is planned too, which the TII spokesperson said should provide “Most of the improvements on weekdays”: drivers will have four more minutes to complete each trip along their route.

At the moment, trams are so busy that the amount of time it takes to let people get on and off at each stop can put a tram behind schedule, and lead to trams bunching up – with a couple arriving in quick succession and then a bigger-than-ideal gap till the next one.

Putting on more trams, and giving drivers a bit more time for each trip, should reduce bunching and those big gaps, or so the theory goes.

All this requires hiring more drivers, something TII says Transdev is working on now. Dublin Bus is also trying to hire more drivers to improve and increase its services, but has struggled to attract and retain them.

Green Line

Overcrowding is a problem not only on the Red line but also on the Green line, TII said in July 2023.

It was so crowded at the Balally and Ranelagh stops that some passengers were “unable or unwilling to board at these stops”, it said.

“Demand projections from the NTA suggest that there is a latent demand for travel on the Green Line where people are not travelling by Luas due to peak period capacity constraints,” it said.

The January 2025 presentation includes plans for expanding capacity on the Green Line.

It lists “Capacity in peak hours and on Sundays” and “Bridesglen and Broombridge capacity issues in peak hours” as “Challenges”.

To address this, the plan is to increase the number of trams at peak times (“peak vehicle requirement” from 32 to 34 weekday mornings. No change in the evenings.

The presentation also includes in the strategy an increase from 12 to 14 on Sundays. No change on Saturdays.