Re: Re: Luas Central – Which Route?

the green line had the new Taney bridge re-specified and little else on the route as they inherited a Victorian track bed built to accomodate two braod gauge lines.

I like your use of 3/4/5bn it aptly describes just how clear it is that figures are just being plucked from the air]

Yes but no. The foundations had to be fully dug up so to allow for diversion of telephone,gas,electricity pipes. Following that the foundation had to be redone.The foundations are just a start with reinforced track to lay down.Third the electric system is very expensive. The new electric system put in for the DART cost 170 million, and the dart doesn’t come near to the level of electricity required for a fully fledged metro. So it is easy to see how 400 could be spent on the green line. To say that only the taney bridge required redoing is plain wrong, everything on the route had to be upgraded. Trams fully loaded weigh 30/40 tonnes. Metros can weigh hundreds of tonnes. The RPA’s forward thinking is something that we will be very very grateful for when we can progressively move to a metro on the green line with a minimum of fuss.

As per plucking figures out of the sky , I have to agree with you ! Experienve has shown that all large engineering projects like tunnels and metros and the like always over run. The reality is that it’s not possible to cost say the port tunnel until it has been done, as every tunnel is completely different and has to be designed from scratch. That is not to say that great waste doesn’t occur but with respect to the luas the money has been well spent. Mr park if you don’t accept this fine let’s stop this and agree to disagree.