LUAS in Harcourt Street (Update No.8)
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It will be a job in itself cleaning the crap out from the rails to facilitate the trams. It must be an exciting time to be working on the project seeing all that hard work come to fruition.
Progress on completing the network continues. They were planting trees on St Stephens Green at the weekend so I presume they will be replicating the recent improvements on the other three sides of the Green. It will make the stop there much more attractive and it should be a great welcome point into the city.
On the north side the shell of stops are being installed from Heuston to Capel Street. They are in galvinised steel…like everything else in this city. Paint was obviously sooo last millennium. My biggest gripe though are the streetlamps. While the pylons and lines are quite okay and reasonably unobtrustive, the ugly street lamps they put on top are terrible. They could at least have made an effort. A style similar to that on Jervis St maybe? Im dissapointed. This is just not the standard we should be expecting for our 21st century city (Draft Development Plan!). One particular mess is The stretch from Heuston to Museum… the whole area is now a mishmash of lamposts and styles.
Thanks to a colleague I now have photos available of the Hueston test run at http://www.allaboutbuses.com/luas
All is still on for Stephens green at 3pm Thursday.
Gabriel
Luas run in to Stephen’s Green went ahead today, with some protests from Harcourt Street traders standing on the tracks …
What they should be complaining about is the manner in which half of the original silver lamp standards on the street have been replaced with those ridiculous ‘heritage’-based columns, which are being thrown up down Camden St, only with the original heads transplanted onto them.
This is disgraceful, part of the charm of Harcourt St was the historic feel of the place with the wonky railings & subsiding steps combined with the chunky bases of these silver Victorian columns.
There are some now-rare swan-neck examples on the other side, that I fear are about to get the chop.I thought we left these destructrive days long ago.
Some pics:
http://www.allaboutbuses.com/luas/40315-green.htmlCourtesy of Gabriel Conway, keep up the good work.
Originally posted by Peter FitzPatrick
Luas run in to Stephen’s Green went ahead today, with some protests from Harcourt Street traders standing on the tracks …I am amazed that they payed any rates to the corpo who allowed the various contractors run a virtual scrap yard on ALL THE CITY CENTRE SECTIONS
A fat lot of use the luas would be if your creditors foreclose upon your business during what was a virtual open ended series of construction extensions.
Contractors should be hit with the polluter pays principle, it was a disgrace 😡
These traders should be compensated in some way, esp anyone who risks closure, they have gone through hell on this st moreso than anywhere else.
Abbey St didn’t have it too bad comparitively, but Harcourt was woeful for so many reasons.but there is no way the luas won’t help their businesses, whatever the origin woman might say about the luas carrying the wrong kind of people.
its just luck, sometimes infrastructure changes are good for you, sometimes they are bad. if there isn’t a mechanism for charging you when they are good for business, there shouldn’t be one for compensating you when they are bad.
I recon Harcourt Street will be an oasis of tranquility at the weekends with just the Luas and the bus lane. Should be an attraction in itself
It’ll be great for the Odean punters, just stumble down a couple of steps and onto the last tram home.
No doubt a lot of people will make it their first stop too.
Here’s something I hadn’t noticed until today, when reviewing the larger collection of photos from which I selected the ones to put online.
I have several taken of the interior of the trams, and something caught my eye on the seating.
Looking more closely, it seems that the seating moquette design features Dublin architecture . . . different seats have different Dublin buildings on them, such as The Custom House, The Four Courts, Ha’penny Bridge etc.
I’ll go back to the photos and put one online in the next day or two to illustrate this.
Gabriel
Yep Christ Church is in there as well – a well thought out Idea, really localises the trams.
Fare superior to the new CIE vomit ‘n’ blue seats
Originally posted by notjim
but there is no way the luas won’t help their businesses,If your business closed during the construction phase it would not benifit you at all. The LUAS premium will be passed on to all occupiers of rental property at the next rent review. But to date they have received no compensation for ridiculous amount of disturbance.
The corpo who were supposed to oversee all works didn’t even offer some relief of commercial rates. But charged for water and roads that were at best sporadically provided.
Now it may look well, but given the 700m+ spend it would want to.
Would any of you as supervisory architects pay out cheques on behalf of your clients in similar circumstances?
Public Transport Users Protest
Platform11 are in the process of organising a peaceful public protest outside the Dail within the coming month demanding that the Department of Transport and the Transport Unions finally recognise that public transport users are sick and tired of being treated like a forgotten child in a custody divorce hearing between the DoT and SIPTU/NBRU. We are fed-up with constantly having a gun put to our heads every time we use public transport – we want this sorted out and we demand that public transport users finally have their frustrations listened to.
Irish public transport users have their right to avail of dependable, integrated public transport just as in other European countries, and we should not be held hostage or used as pawns. A letter will also be presented to the Minister of Transport Seamus Brennan outlining our issues and demands.
If any individuals or groups would like to join Platform11 for the protest, you all more than welcome. The protest is for ALL Bus and Rail passengers, but groups from cyclists to concerned citizens are very welcome as well.
This protest is still in the planning stage (we are aiming for a weekday at around 1:30PM) and if you want more details, offer suggestions/ideas or just like to show up, then contact us at info@platform.org for updates prior to the protest. This will be your chance to have your voice heard by the government and the media for change.
The title of the demonstration will be “Public Transport Users – WHAT ABOUT US?â€
Originally published by RTE interactive
March 18, 2004(19:31)
The National Institute for Transport and Logistics has called for an independent evaluation of the LUAS project and the proposed plan for a Metro in Dublin.The Institute, which is part of the Dublin Institute of Technology, has said the original cost of the LUAS was €288m but the system is now expected to finally cost around €800m.
In its audit of Ireland’s transport system, the institute also raised concerns about the value for money of subsidising regional air routes. It said the proposed break-up of Aer Rianta – which it described as ‘superficially attractive’ – raised questions about financial viability of Cork and Shannon airports.
The NITL said the large investment in roads could have implications for the future of some inter-urban rail lines and regional air services.
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] [/B]Brian we deserve answers, 512m is a lot of money I’ll see you there 🙂 😮
I´m really tired of hearing all this crap about the cost of Luas. The facts are :
The original cost was for a single line, one depot, no connection to Abbey Street and Connolly and fewer trams. It was also costed almost 10 years ago !!
The current cost reflects the new configuration (changed at the incistance of the government remember!). So now we have two lines, two depots, more trams and additional track not to mention Connolly as a major new terminus and interchange. Three years ago the government accepted a tender cost of 700million plus a risk and contingency figure of 80million. The final outurn costs are in line with those figures.
Supposing I as an Architect designed a house to a budget and to a brief then gave the client a guarantee that the price would not change from the first estimate done 10 years earlier despite the fact that its now bigger, in a different place and made from different materials, would I be taken seriously ? I certainly would not be in business very long !
By the way as an interesting aside on the Origin Gallery issue in Harcourt Street, my friend in the RPA told me that Noelle CS wrote a few months ago requesting an additional stop be provided in Harcourt Street as the stop at the Odeon is too far from her premises !!!!
Gabriel, well done on the photos, I´m out of the country on hols at the moment and its great to be able to see the latest pictures.
Keep up the good work !!JJ
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