In relation the the general thrust of Garret Fitzgeralds article, the Luas is not up to the job of carrying the amount of people it carries. I'd base that on the already known lack of public transport systems in Dublin, which is why so many flocked to it. Packed trams are not a sign of success, they are a sign that public transport in Dublin is disasterous. For this we blame Governments. As presented, the original CIE light rail proposal that was inherited by the RPA, was a poor mans version of an actual train service. There is simply no getting away from this. For example, Tallaght has a population approaching over 100,000. Serving that with buses and light rail is, in my opinion, very lame. I believe that in Dublin, we expect a tram to do the job of a train. Engineers will disagree with me. But back in the 1970s, Tallaght was already identified as an area that would require a train service. (DART) The Green line works, to a degree, at the moment, because it has a very direct route (along a previous rail alignment) to the city centre. The extension to this line as planned will only serve to equate it to the red line and finally convert it to a "real" light rail service. As things stand, the only difference between Green line services and the previous "train" service is the units are shorter and at higher frequencies. New passengers further out in areas such as Cherrywood, will get a red line experience. If its extended to Bray, then the journey time will be excruciating.
So when is a tram a train and when is a train meant to be a tram????
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