Projects & Improvements

Since opening for service in 2004, four extensions to the existing Luas lines have been completed. These were:

• Luas Citywest Red Line Extension - December 2009
• Luas Cherrywood Green Line Extension - October 2010
• Luas Docklands Red Line Extension - July 2011
• Luas Cross City Green Line Extension - December 2017

Currently the system has 67 stops and 42.1 kilometres (26.2 mi) of service track.

Red Line Additional Capacity & Red Cow Depot Extension

Luas was launched in 2004 with 40 trams: fourteen 40m long Alstom Citadis trams on Luas Green Line based at the Sandyford Depot and twenty-six 30m long Citadis trams on Luas Red Line based at the Red Cow Depot. 

RPA wished to increase Luas Red Line passenger capacity by converting the existing 26 Citadis 301s to 26 Citadis 401s.This required the supply and insertion of a Motorised Intermediate Car (MIC) and a Suspended Car (SC) for each of the vehicles, making them five module vehicles upgrading from three module trams. Capacity on these trams had increased further with the addition of Spider Bars for standing passengers in the centre of the module and additional flip-down seating.

The €41m of required funding was approved in December 2005 by the Department of Transport, with RPA committing to a rate of vehicle conversion of one longer vehicle every two and a half weeks. One tram at a time was removed from service and extended. The funding also covered the extension of the depot at Red Cow and additional tram stabling lanes to accommodate the newly extended 40 metre fleet. The extension of the Red Line Trams started in February 2007 and was completed on time and under budget in May 2008.

Additional Trams

On March 31st 2007 RPA entered into a €51m contract for an additional 18 Luas vehicles. Following the successful granting of a Railway Order by An Bord Pleanála for Luas Citywest (Line A1), RPA increased the original order to 26 trams with the addition of 8 more, at an additional cost of €22m. These trams were purchased to ensure RPA maintain the same timetable service frequency on both Luas Red and Green Lines. The addition of these 26 new trams to the Luas fleet brings the total number of trams to 66.

Luas Cross City and Green Line Capacity Enhancement (GLCE)

To accommodate the growth in passenger demand ahead of the opening of Luas Cross City to Broombridge, an additional seven Alstom Citadis 502-type trams were procured. These vehicles are 55m in length and have the capacity to carry more than 400 passengers.

As passenger growth increased on the Green Line, TII set out to increase the overall capacity of the Green Line fleet by commencing the Green Line Capacity Enhancement (GLCE) project. This involved the procurement of eight brand new 55m trams as well as the extension of twenty-six existing trams by almost 30% to bring them up to a 55m vehicle specification. These two vehicle projects ran concurrently with work commencing to extend the first of the twenty-six Alstom Citadis 402s in May 2019. All vehicle extensions as well as the eight brand new vehicles entered service by March 2021. This brings the total number of trams in the Luas fleet to eighty-one.