[10-12-2008] Luas Red Line Partially Suspended

[Mark Gleeson]

Fire in a building near Jervis Stop

Services suspended Connolly to Smithfield

Normal service Smithfield Tallaght, Dublin Bus will honour all tickets

[Colm Moore]

It also looks like there are power issures - crew (with bolt cutters!) on site at the O'Connell Street substation.

Powered off trams at Abbey Street stop and on Middle Abbey Street.

http://www.luas.ie/travel-updates.php

Red Line distruption

10/12/08 17:50 No services between Four Courts and Connolly
2008-12-10

http://www.luas.ie/page.php?name=Red_Line_distruption

10/12/08 17:50

The LUAS Redline (Tallaght to Connolly) is disrupted at the moment due to a fire in the Jervis Street area. Services are operating between Tallaght and Smithfield. There are no services between Four Courts and Connolly.

LUAS tickets are valid on Dublin Bus for the duration of this disruption.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

[Mark Gleeson]

Fire probably tripped out the overhead or the fire officer needed the power shut off asap

[Mark Gleeson]

Fire out

Alstom engineers on site now trying to get the electricity back on

Services might be back running within the next 30 minutes or so

Cheers to Colm for ringing in

[luasuser]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Fire out

Alstom engineers on site now trying to get the electricity back on

Services might be back running within the next 30 minutes or so

Cheers to Colm for ringing in

Service back to normal. the reason the power lines are disconnected is because a tram will have a short circuit if the power is isolated while trams are turned on! therefore the trams (4) that where between jervis & connolly had to be powered off, or else the trams inner batteries would waste & the trams would have to be towed from the city back to the depot in red cow. this is a slow process as the trams being towed can only travel at max 25km per hour.

the lines would also have to be isolated as a safety precaution for the fire services!

[igy]

The trams can't handle a power failure gracefully?
I must say that surprises me; what happens if a big chunk of the ESB grid fails temporarily, all the trams need to be towed back to base?

[luasuser]

Originally Posted by igy

The trams can't handle a power failure gracefully?
I must say that surprises me; what happens if a big chunk of the ESB grid fails temporarily, all the trams need to be towed back to base?

NO......there are sub-stations along both lines so if a chunk of power fails it would only affect those trams served by that sub-station! there are internal batteries on every tram to allow for the doors to open and close just like emergency lights in buildings. but the battery only last for a short period of time just enough time to park the tram to allow passengers to alight safely. then the tram would have to isolate the battery. Just like a car battery if you left the lights on while you went to get petrol. by the time you got back the petrol would be no good without a battery to power the electrics.
Thats way if a fault happens on a tram, a tram will de-train it's passengers and either return empty back to the depot or be 'stabled' (with its battery isolated) until the fault can be sorted.

[igy]

Yeah, I understand that, and I imagine it's a fairly tricky problem to overcome now that I think about it a little more.
I guess I always assumed if the power failed a battery took over (as you say it does), but when that drained all that was required was to reapply power and some the backup battery would be charged to a point where it could start up the main systems again

(I guess I'm thinking of the example where a phone's battery dies completely and plugging it into a charger won't power it back up immediately, but results in the phone charging the battery exclusively, before later powering back up)