LATE-NIGHT LUAS services past 1am has been ruled out for now by the National Transport Authority (NTA).

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan asked the authority in June to examine the prospect of running late-night Luas services.

Currently the Luas does not operate between 1am and 5am.

The minister indicated that having additional public transport capacity past midnight would have an impact on the taxi driver shortage in the capital. 

However, an NTA spokesperson has told The Journal that the NTA and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) recently examined the prospect of the Luas operating past 1am but have concluded that extending services significantly “is not something that should be progressed at this point”. 

The reason cited by the NTA for not rolling out late night services is that essential maintenance on the likes of overhead cable systems, rail works and cleaning “can only be carried out when all trams are out of service”. 

“Even with the current schedule in place, the nightly window for that preventative maintenance work to take place is only is only somewhere between two and three hours.

“Further extending hours of service would by definition, reduce the amount of time available for maintenance work, which could result in a diminution of services at other times of the week,” said the spokesperson. 

The spokesperson said that Friday-Saturday and Saturday-Sunday sets of engineering hours “are particularly valuable on Luas, as the longer window due to the later start on Saturday and Sunday gives extra time for longer tasks, which again are required regularly”. 

“Were we to regularly run later services on Luas at say weekends, an alternative time would be required to complete these activities, and it is difficult to see where this could be facilitated without substantially disrupting busy mid-week mornings,” said the NTA spokesperson. 

Taxi shortage in Dublin

Concerns have been raised about Dublin’s taxi shortage, with latest figures from the NTA showing that only 29% of drivers are working during the busy periods of Friday and Saturday nights.

Readers told The Journal of their experiences trying to get home after socialising in the city centre, with some saying that they were forced to wait hours for a taxi, while others opted to walk home.

Alongside the taxi shortage, taxi fares are set to increase by 12% on average from 1 September as part of measures to reflect the increasing operating costs for drivers.

David McGuinness, chairperson of the taxi driver representative organisation Tiomanaí Tacsaí Na hEireann (TTnH) recently told this website that taxi fares weighted in favour of those working ‘unsocial hours’ is expected to entice drivers back into city centres during busy weekend evenings.

The new fare structure will see the standard initial charge increase from €3.80 to €4.20.

The initial charge during premium periods covering 8pm-8am and Sundays and public holidays will go from €4.20 to €4.80.

McGuinness said that he expects that the taxi situation in Dublin in particular to  improve over the rest of summer as there are fewer events planned in the city centre. 

Late-night public transport needed, not just taxis

However, he said there is a need for additional late night public transport options, other than taxis: 

“Five years ago if you had a big event on you would have had a lot of additional buses put on to cater for them, but that’s not happening anymore and that means there’s a huge demand when they’re on.

“Maybe the licensing of these events should be looked at more seriously to include how customers at concerts or events can actually get back from these places. It can’t just fall on the taxi industry, we need a proper late night bus service and the Luas and Dart should be running later.”

While the NTA has ruled out such a late night Luas service, in a recent reply to a parliamentary question by Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond, the authority said that overnight bus services are being prioritised.

It said late night bus services have been introduced on a number of routes such as the 15, 39a and 41 in recent years.

A new 24-hour operation is in place between Sandymount and Adamstown via the city centre and South Lucan, and also between Ringsend depot and Maynooth/Celbridge via the city centre and Lucan Village. An orbital route along the N4 between Blanchardstown and the Point Village via DCU and Collins Avenue has also been rolled out.

The NTA said further 24-hour services are expected to commence in late summer on routes G1/G2 to Liffey Valley/Red Cow via Ballyfermot, adding that future phases will include more expansion of overnight services.

Focus on expanding 24-hour bus services

The authority is understood to be examining what other options are available within the funding and the operator driver resources to extend services later in the evening to support the recovery in the night-time economy.

Rather than rolling out the Luas on a 24-hour basis, the NTA said the delivery of 24-hour bus services on a regular schedule across the network “is more feasible and the NTA is committed to delivering more of these services as the BusConnects Dublin network is rolled out”.

However, Richmond told The Journal that late-night Luas services are “badly needed” as are more 24-hour Dublin Bus services, more Nitelink routes “given the persisting issues with access to taxis in Dublin city centre”.

“This is becoming a public safety issue with many people being forced to walk home, often alone, late at night as public transport is not operating and taxis are hard to come by.

“Currently, the Luas runs until only 12.30am mid-week and weekends and 11pm on Sundays. Getting the Luas home is simply not an option for many people availing of the night-life in Dublin city centre,” said Richmond. 

“I have previously asked the NTA to look into expanding the operating hours of the Luas to ensure more people can get home safely after a night out. Excuses such as the need for maintenance work is hard to accept when we often see service disruptions during operating hours with stops closed.

“The need for occasional maintenance should not be a barrier to increased operating hours. Other European cities have managed this, Berlin even has 24 hour services on the weekends and so we must look to them as an example,” he said. 

“It is simply not sustainable for Dublin to have such restricted public transport operating hours and this must be addressed to ensure the safety and well-being of all those who live in and around the city,” he said.