This evening I made my first trip on the new LUAS Red line, which is the line from Connolly Station to Tallaght.
I got on at Four Courts, and got off at Kylemore. On the way back, I got off at Abbey. In both directions, the tram was jam-packed. Obviously that will change from Monday next, when we will all have to pay our fare (except all those with the Dept of Social & Family Affairs passes). It was noticeable how many pre-teenagers were travelling. Overall, I did not get the impression that it was much faster than taking the bus. This is probably because, at the stops, no doubt the drivers were taking care with the doors so that nobody was travelling with one of their hands or limbs on the outside.
Studying and travelling on metros and tramway systems brings home to me how much a transport network can really change and affect how we view a city. In other words, the transport map almost becomes the real city map from our point of view. We tend to look at places from the point of view of how to get there.,
In London and Paris, it is standard practice for a hotel, shop, or public building to publicise itself by stating which is the nearest Metro/Tube station. In Dublin, it is not a ubiquitous custom to see bus numbers on advertisements, but I can see businesses in Dublin using the LUAS as a marketing tool, and advertising how far they are from the nearest platform, etcetera.
It was not cheap to build, and it will not be cheap to use it, but now that we have it, most of us will make the most of it.
