TODAY, FOR THE first time, the new Luas Cross City will be tested across Dublin city centre.
Beginning very early and running until around midday, a tram will travel very, very slowly from Stephen’s Green, down Dawson Street, around College Green, over O’Connell Bridge and ending at Broadstone in Phibsboro.
Luas Cross City spokesperson Grainne Mackin told TheJournal.ie that this will be the first “gauge run” to make sure the new tracks work correctly.
Mackin said: “The trains are set to go at walking pace. It’ll be quite a spectacle. It’s set to go all the way through the city centre.
Because we’ll be going at walking pace, from 7am till noon we’ll have a tram moving very slowly through the city centre.
Because the lines will be tested in full, and at such a pace, junctions along the way will be stopped for traffic at various stages of the route.
A traffic management team and members of the gardaí will be in attendance to enforce the traffic restrictions.
Across junctions at O’Connell Bridge, for example, the tram will travel at slow speeds which may cause traffic to be stopped for several minutes at a time.
The new single track runs from Stephen’s Green but diverges into two separate tracks after College Green. One line runs north up Westmoreland Street across O’Connell Bridge, and up O’Connell Street.
The other strand travels southward down Marlborough Street, across the new bridge between Eden and Burgh Quays and south along Hawkins Street and into College Street, and links back up with at College Green.
At various points of the morning, traffic will close for short periods of time across these lines.
This gauge run allows engineers to confirm several important aspects of the lines and the trams to ensure they are operating correctly and safely.
Mackin said that the engineers will even be out with measuring tape to ensure everything goes smoothly.
“From the high tech to the low tech, we have to make sure everything is working,” she said.
The Luas Cross City works have been ongoing since 2013. This gauge run is the first of a series of them over the summer and autumn to ensure that the line is ready to launch as planned in December.
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