Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE LUAS CROSS City development has been ongoing for the past two years.
The new development will connect the existing red and green lines.
While an additional 10 million journeys a year will be facilitated in the city, major traffic delays across the city have been caused and the line will not be operational until the end of 2017.
This is all a bit strange considering the fact that Dublin’s tram system used to look like this…
View the full-sized image here.
Up until the 1920s the main mode of public transportation around the city was its tramways.
Ther service came into existence in 1865 and, according to Moving Through Modernity: Space and Geography in Modernism, was considered “one of the most impressive in the world” by 1904.
On the old system, Dublin had pretty comprehensive coverage.
Examples of some of the routes in service at the time included:
What brought about the end for Dublin’s tramways was the rise of the bus service in the city. Buses proved to be more mobile and had the ability to travel to areas that were a long distance away from tram stops. Dublin’s first official bus route opened in 1925, running from Killester via Clontarf to the city centre.
Coming towards the end of the 1940s, the use of trams in the city went into rapid decline, as shown in this table in an article published in the Journal of Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland in 1955.
Click here to view a larger version of the above table.
The last tram journey taken in the city before the establishment of the Luas was on the Hill of Howth line on 31 May 1959.
I think it has been recognised that taking up those tram lines was a huge mistake. The country at that time was being run by people who could not see beyond the end of their noses!
The whole country used to have a fantastic rail network
The country is still being run by people who could not see beyond the end of their noses.
Ah Les you got there before me!
It seems to me that successive Irish governments over the past fifty odd years have achieved more to destroy and disrupt the nations transport system than did al lof the bombing in Britain during WW2. Where would London have been if they decided to abandon the Underground.
Basically when it was run by the UK all that planning and development was awesome. Shame it went the way it did really….
absolutely true..They destroyed the hole country’s network removing tracks to areas covering hard to reach. .and to this day these areas have never recovered
It’s time for the British to come back and rule us.
Democracy is an illusion anyway.
not funny
The reality is that when the Brits were here we had a fantastic transport system across the whole country with train lines linking every corner.. even when the lines were decommissioned we didn’t even preserve them. We kinda made a hames of the first 100 years of independence… not just in transport but in most other aspects.
We are a young nation yet.. and we had effectively four hundred years of being largely oppressed (outside the pale) so give us time yet.
And havent the British done a fantastic job with the bit of Ireland they retain control of? Sure it’s crawling with trams! And no-one ever gets kicked to death by sectarian mobs. And the economy is just peachy, private industry loves the place.
QWERTY Are you not happy with german rule?
It’s better than being left to our own devices but I’d prefer British. GSTQ
Weren’t we the second largest port city in the empire when we were in the UK. We didn’t do too badly under UK rule, we just happened to act like a spoilt child at times
When the British Empire was at the height of its power and wealth during the Victorian era, a million Irish people starved to death, so even though there was a nice tram system I’m afraid life wasn’t all that great either.
And no Dublin wasn’t the second largest port, Liverpool and Glasgow for example were bigger. It had the second largest population in the Empire for a while but it lost that title not long after the Act of Union. The massive industrialisation going on elsewhere in the UK largely bypassed Dublin and so cities like Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester quickly surpassed Dublin in terms of population and wealth.
Didn’t take long for the Famine to rear its head.
If Britian were still ruling Ireland would look like Bangladesh, So not thanks.
building 2 luas lines the lenght of the southside and having nothing 2 properly serve the northside says a lot about the corruption in Ireland and favouritism towards one part of the city, even with this new extension the luas will only go to Cabra WTF, vastly populated areas like Swords , Coolock,Finglas and of course Dublin Airport are left in the stoneage, this is all before we even talk about the non existing transport(or poor excuse) to bring you from the east of the city to the west, took me 2 1/2 hours to get from blanch to donaghmede before on a 17A in rush hour , takes 15 mins by car …..what form of transport would you use?
at the moment there is 1 luas in the north side and the other in the south. The new line starts in the south side and goes up into the North side??
are you trolling or are you actually serious with that comment ? read what I said again, both luas lines run for miles in 2 directions all across the south side ….one of the lines runs a few metres north of the Liffey up the quay hardly a fare comparison? I guess you live on the southside and aren’t affected by the terrible public transport on the opposite side of the city
Yeah, there’s this view that if you live in Dublin, you must have brilliant public transport. I’m on the southside, but the public transport’s a joke around me too. They seem to love using the same roads for buses over and over again, so if you don’t live on or near one of those roads, you’re fecked. And getting west to east is barely a posibility. Or west to wester(is that a word?). They seem to have an serious aversion to putting in bus routes that don’t serve the city centre, and there’s no option to take a slightly cheaper bus into a slighter bigger area to try to give you more choices with your buses. The whole system needs an overhaul.
@Mrs Shalakalananaka: imagine if there were bus services ran from/to the outer suburbs, starting/terminating in the inner suburbs, at DART/rail/LUAS stations, with the timetables/capacity to handle those arriving on the other mode of transport?
Think it’ll ever happen? Well, based on how long it took to get a charge-card organised that worked on multiple public transport modes, and the fact that, after decades of criticism about not using the middle doors on buses, Dublin Bus solved the problem by simply ordering buses with *no* centre doors, I wouldn’t hold my breath…
John, the reason that we have two luas lines on the south side and none (yet) on the north side is because there was space on the south side for trams. The green line follows the disused railway line that used to terminate at the pod on harcourt street and the red line has closed of many streets and follows filled in canal for many parts. We don’t have enough room for a complex tram line which is why we should be going underground. The line on the north side will also follow an old disused train line from constitution hill up to its end point.
More than likely a number of the planners don’t hail from Dublin city. Luas/Dart used as vote catchers. You are so right.
According to my grandad, Dev made a deal with Ford. If he dismantled the transport infrastructure enough, Ford would eventually open a factory in Ireland. What a huge price we have paid for a hodge podge of small startups on a cheap rent derilect Ford factory complex in Cork. The quick fix and no long- term.planning.
Don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, mad how things never change!
IRELAND!! The candy store for the lobbyists.
The Ford factory was first built in Cork in 1917 so Dev can’t be blamed on that I’m afraid!
There’s other stuff we can blame Dev on.
Jibber – even if that story re ford isn’t true (and despite the factory being open doesn’t mean it’s not – ford could have threatened to close it or not extend it or lay off staff, or simply just pay Dev a few quid), Dev still was the first in a long line of politicians who can’t fully explain where their wealth came from (millions raised by Dev in America FYI help rebuild Ireland, was instead used by him for his political career – with his ‘the people don’t have the right to be wrong’ policy, and millions more ‘vanished’
And what did the British ever do for us? Quite a lot actually. Modern people do not live in a self-pitying self-delusional foggy past based on myth, ignorance and an agenda created by those who want to control the minds of those who are incapable of independent thought. What about?
Yes Pat. The Penal Laws were the best thing that ever happened to Ireland. We are still living with the result of that one.
Charlie, I am delighted to inform you that the Penal Laws have all been successfully repealed in Ireland and Great Britain. I hope that this puts your mind at rest.
The Brits did a lot for those living within the Pale but it was a different story for the rest of the country. Maybe that’s why whenever you see Pro FG, Pro Unionist comments on the multiple accounts used on here by a few trolls they always seem t have Leinster Rugby or other Dublin based accounts attached to them. Not everyone within the Pale is the same of course but if you want to find a few Kevin Meyers acolytes then this is the place to go.
Oh look at the this rail way map from 1906 showing the extensive rail network connecting all those small towns beyond the pale that people today cant travel between without a car. Yes so much has been done for rural development in the last 100 years compared to the centuries of neglect that came before it https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Map_Rail_Ireland_Viceregal_Commission_1906.jpg
All in the past Tap, Britain is now a mutli ethnic hellhole.
we can’t have too many people on trains because we need the motor tax to pay for our water.
This Luas shite is just a waste of time and money. An underground and a proper railway infrastructure across the country is the future.
Actually the Luas is important for a modern transport network in Dublin but not alone. You’ll notice that most cities which have a metro and underground network also have an interconnecting tram system. Trams can more efficiently feed commuters to metro and train stations from outlying areas where direct train and metro connections would be too cost-prohibitive.
I’d take anyone over the fools we have. Wouldn’t let me use the Cun#S word.
You’re an idiot. You’d replace the current shower with anyone? a foreign government – i see you have a Dublin jersey why doesn’t that surprise me. Sure ye were always content with the brits anyway.
Just for the record we have a democracy – the present shower will face the electorate again after completing their mandate.. and unfortunately you will get the chance to vote again, because even idiots have a vote… unlike under British rule where we were ruled.
We have a foreign government. What we have is puppets on stings.
No we don’t – you may not remember but in 2011 there was an election.. and again in 2016. I’m sorry if its confusing for you.
“Sergeant Yates
No we don’t – you may not remember but in 2011 there was an election.. and again in 2016. I’m sorry if its confusing for you.”
How is anyone meant to remember an election in 2016 when it’s 2015?
You’re confused son.
Do you ever listen to yourself Yates? insane, bigoted ramblings would be the most polite description. Great to see the rural ‘ye’ make its appearance. you really are a little ball of hated and resentment, aren’t you?
Dublin has an awful transport system. totally unfit for purpose. irregular and expensive and run for staff and management rather than the travelling public. needs to be totally redone and start with a subway system connecting the airport to the city
It’s not expensive at all. Try London public transport and you will see what expensive means.
Dublin also had an underground. What happened to that?
They are re-commissioning it, it was announced 2 weeks ago. Try and keep up.
It’s interesting chow Dublin bus helped bring a decline to the tramways , now their trying to block competition
I like the headline but the part where it says we had to go rip the whole thing up is crap I didn’t. Please amend that line under the heading as to who actually did
The real reason public transport was gradually broken up by councillors, politicians and vested interests was to make room for the motor car…
Dublin streets and neighbourhoods ripped open to build dual carriageways into the city, along the lines of a typical British city.
It’s amazing to see the amount of people moaning out of them that the Luas and public transport is rubbish, but when there is a measure of trying to improve bus and luas services, along with sustainable transport like cycling then the “I pay Road tax” crowd are on complaining that “Owen Keegan” is out to get the private car driver…!!
Ya can’t win!
We already pay twice for public transport., through government funding and tickets when we board.
I’m not paying three times for improving the current system.
#nowaywontpay
Paying twice or three times for government services seems to be the Irish way…
The route map makes it look amazing but it was just a load of rickety old buses on rickety old tracks. If that wasn’t the case, it would still exist.
Donegal user to have trains.
‘Great’ Britain is an awful place, with far more issues than Ireland. Yes we made mistakes but at least they were our mistakes. We live in a great country, why do we always have to knock it. Shit sick oh negativity.
At one time over 900 miles of tram lines in Dublin.
have your say