RPA Annual Report 2010

[Colm Moore]

http://www.rpa.ie/en/news/Pages/RPAA...eport2010.aspx

RPA Annual Report 2010

RPA Annual Report 2010 - Luas numbers up 8% and Operating Surplus Maintained

The Railway Procurement Agency today, 29th June 2011, published its Annual Report for 2010, the sixth full year of operation of the Luas Red and Green Lines. Luas celebrates its seventh birthday tomorrow, June 30th. Since Luas brought trams back to Dublin’s streets after an absence of over half a century, two extensions have been added, Luas Docklands in December 2009 and Luas Cherrywood in October 2010. The third extension, Luas Citywest will open at noon on Saturday next, 2nd July 2011.

The year to December 2010 was a challenging one for all areas of the Irish economy and trends in employment, retail activity and entertainment have a very strong influence on the demand for public transport. In this context RPA is very pleased to report an 8% increase in passenger numbers on Luas from 25.4million in 2009 to 27.5 million in 2010 and a pre-tax operating surplus on infrastructure activities of €1.1m. RPA’s ability to generate a surplus from the infrastructure business in 2010 was a very positive result given the pressure on costs from the introduction of new lines and the challenge of growing demand in current economic circumstances.

Luas continues to maintain its position within the small group of successful urban public transport systems in Europe that do not require operating subventions. The underlying trend in passenger numbers for Luas is very positive. The second half of 2010 saw a very strong performance by the Red Line which serves a greater variety of destinations and users than the Green Line. RPA is very encouraged that the public continues to show confidence in the Luas service at a time when there is less congestion on the roads and when employment and retail activity have seen sharp declines. There are also strong indications that many people are using Luas Park and Ride facilities and connections to mainline rail and bus services to travel to major entertainment and social events in venues such as Croke Park, Aviva Stadium, the new Grand Canal Theatre and The 02. The new Citywest Luas extension includes a 312 space Park and Ride at Cheeverstown. Work has commenced on a similar Park and Ride at Carrickmines which will open later this year.

During 2010 RPA and Veolia Transport Ireland carried out a range of promotional activities which were designed to remind people of the convenience, good value and environmental benefits of Luas and these efforts have resonated with the public.


RPA Annual Report 2010 English (5.13MB)

RPA Annual Report 2010 Irish (5.17MB)

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Previous annual reports: http://www.rpa.ie/en/rpa/about/Pages/AnnualReports.aspx