This morning.

O’Connell Bridge, Dublin 1

On the second day of its operation, Tram No 5027 failed to clear O’Connell Bridge northbound with the rear of the carriages jutting out and blocking traffic on the South Quays.

The tram, which has two extra carriages compared to existing trams, was itself blocked beforehand by a taxi parked in a yellow box.

…City traffic planners had warned that the new large Luas cannot stop on O’Connell Bridge without blocking traffic.

This was one of the reasons put forward for traffic restrictions on Bachelor’s Walk on the North Quays.

…Luas operator Transdev is currently operating just one 55m tram each day, but there will be seven in service by April.

Good times.

Longer Luas blocks traffic on Dublin’s South Quays (John Kilraine, RTÉ)

Tuesday: His Cross To Bear

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29 thoughts on “One Job

  1. edalicious

    Surely the title of the article should be “Taxi blocks traffic on Dublin’s South Quays”?

    1. cian

      No. O’Connell Bridge is 45m long. The Luas is 55m long.

      So when the Luas is stopped on the bridge at the lights the end of if will jut out into the traffic on the quays.

      1. realPolithicks

        Can they not adjust the traffic lights so that when the Luas comes through they automatically get a green light?

        1. Shankillfalls

          Cant guarantee there will be 55 metres free on O’Connell St to fit the tram. The lane is not reserved for the LUAS and they are quite narrow.

          1. realPolithicks

            That’s a fair point, it sounds like not reserving a lane for the Luas might prove to be a mistake.

        2. cian

          They have adjusted the lights to give Luas right-of-way – however (my understanding) is that a taxi blocked the Luas before it got to the bridge, and because it was delayed, it missed the lights. So when the taxi moved, the Luas moved across to the bridge and then blocked the road.
          Another solution is to stop the Luas on D’olier street until if can fully cross the bridge.

  2. ahjayzis

    The more I get the Luas the more I think it’s been specified totally wrongly.

    Trams aren’t supposed to be mass transit on the scale it tries to be. The configuration is all wrong. They’re about as packed as underground trains in London at rush hour, but the doors are tiny and the seat configuration is for a suburbon orbital route, with bugger all standing room / room to pass by people. Total nightmare embarking/disembarking.

    1. Scundered

      Seats on each side instead of back to back would be nicer and leave wider corridor, although is our culture ready for staring at each other across the carriage?

  3. HyperGlobalCompuMegaNet

    Stick a Guard at the junction giving fines and penalty points to every numpty/impatient/selfish taxi (or any other vehicle) driver that obstructs the tram, people won’t be long getting the message if the news stories were about that rather than a tram that obstructed traffic due to someone else’s error.

    Emphasis in the piece is all wrong, why blame the LUAS for what is a more fundamental widespread issue of Irish motorists not understanding, or wilfully ignoring, how to correctly use yellow boxes.

    1. some old queen

      If an airplane landed on a Luas the media headline would be ‘Luas crashes into airplane’.

    2. Mike

      do as they do in London, put a camera on EVERY YELLOW BOX junction, and fine them when the lights turn red, the money will help the roads and stop people doing this in time..

    3. Andy

      LOL, the traffic cops are too busy faking breath tests. And sure, they couldn’t be out in the rain or cold now could they!!

      Similar to them washing their hands of antisocial behavior of neighbors, the gaurds have no interest in keeping traffic flowing in the city – sure that’s the council’s job. Sadly, the council’s design etc are based on people obeying the law, but sure the gaurd’s never enforce the bloody law.

      Gowls.

  4. Shankillfalls

    The lane on the bridge is not just for trams. Other vehicles are allowed to use it. But that is not the only issue. If, as they say, the tram is meant to cross without stopping that would require the driver to be able to see from Westmoreland St that there was 55 metres clear on O’Connell St and somehow know that no car or bus would move into the LUAS lane while it trundled across the bridge. Impossible. More short trams and put the long ones on DoneDeal.

  5. :-Joe

    I have to hold my hand up folks,

    I hired a taxi to pull a doughnut in the clearway while I recorded the ambient wildtrack for my new experimental electro-pop-natural soundtrack album.

    It’s called “Traffic Traffic Ha Ha Ha” from my new 54 hour debut soundtrack album entitled “Chaos is Beauty let’s rinse and repeat”….

    :-J

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