This morning.
O’Connell Bridge, Dublin 1
An extra long 55m tram Luas tram crosses O’Connell Bridge.
The longer tram has caused disruptions on the bride since its introduction last month.
Seven more will be in service by April.
FIGHT!
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It would be interesting to see the passenger numbers on the northbound trams. I’ve no doubt the extra long trams are full until St Stephens green but hey do seem empty by the time they reach O’Connell st, from what I have observed.
I think the only place that trams can turn around in town now is at the top of O’Connell St. They go up to Parnell St and turn right and go back down Marlborough St rather than continuing on towards Dominic St.
perhaps Stephens green should be the terminus for the 55m trams, everybody off and those who want to continue northbound will board a smaller tram.
yeah, sure fupp them, they’re only northsiders
If the very empty Northbound tram cannot fit over O’Connell bridge without stopping traffic along the quays, perhaps we should be using a shorter tram?
Nah, people will change their habits to adjust to the new route over time so they will become more full eventually but it could take months to years.
in neither picture are the trams blocking the traffic on Burgh Quay…
you must have the 360 panoramic version of the those pictures..
no. but if you look at the right-hand side of the tram – the back of it is over the middle of left-most arch. So the train is fully on the bridge.
I suspect the picture is of the normal tram and not one of the ‘long’ ones.
A complete disaster brought to you by the man who screwed up dunloghaire
Good old owen Keegan
By the time they are finished shoppers will disappear from the city centre as carrying bags will be such a endurance
With shopping centres offering free parking the city centre will soon be a no go and shops paying exorbitant rates will no longer be able to trade
I listened to mannix Flynn on the matter the other week
Ask yourself this would you endure carting around kilos of bags walking miles then getting on packed darts luaus and depending on the busses which are a disaster
1.5 hours from ballybrack to the city centre and finding many of the scheduled busses suddenly disappearing off that rather fancy computerised arrivals system
Don’t be daft.. if your going on a shopping spree you don’t belong in town.. town is for eating drinking and light shopping. Not buying a Telly
in fairness Dun Laoghire was fupped-over by the appeal of free parking on the various M50 super-shopping centres, initially Liffey Valley, then the Square, Tallaght, but the final nail in the coffin was Dundrum Town Centre.
Dun Laoghire can’t compete with free parking (or Dundrum’s 3-hours-for-€2)
Why couldn’t it? Dun Laoghaire could have easily introduced 3 hours for €1 in the shopping center years ago.
Its probably far too late now mind you, with most of the shops gone. But they definitely could have done more to stop the rot.
DL town centre has always been a bit of a kip, was never really a nice place to spend time in my lifetime anyway…always a bit windswept cold derelict ghost of a former grander past…but Keegan defo made it worse tinkering about with parking regimes & bad business rates at a time when Dundrum was looming large….now that new Frascati project down the road is going to wipe out the fragile green shoots down there very soon…only thing worth doing imo is to raze the whole centre and build houses & apartments on it :)
I disagree. There are only a few hundred spaces in the shopping centre.
There are nearly 3,000 in Dundrum Town centre
They just need to introduce a tax on car parking spaces; that would even up the scales a bit between town centres/retail parks.
Why do we need to even things up? Why should retail parks subsidies town centres?
Is that not like making Usain Bolt carry a 20kg weight when he’s racing?
Retail parks are typically only easily accessible by car, while town centres are generally accessible by walking/public transport. If we want live in a more sustainable way, reduce congestion on ring roads, and keep our town centres alive*, we should curb their growth. If I was head of ABP, I would object to every one, personally.
*this can be a big problem with regional towns
Fair enough Rob.
But if the aim is to keep the town centres alive, then we shouldn’t allow retail parks in the first place (or limit their size so they are only serving the local population). Not to slap a parking-space tax on them.
I would be in favour of taxing every car parking space owned by every private business (which would in practice probably have the same effect of refusing zoning to out-of-town shopping centres).
Owen Keegan may produce plans to widen the bridge and indeed the Liffey rather
than shorten the tram.
The tram didn’t cause the disruptions, a taxi parked in a yellow box blocking the tram caused the disruptions.
The tram has priority and should never have to stop where it did.
That said I do think more smaller trams would probably be better