Concerns over overcrowding on the Luas Red Line as councillors call to increase capacity
South Dublin councillors have raised concerns about overcrowding on the Luas Red line, calling for increased capacity to service people in parts of the county.
“The Luas red line is at capacity as it is – they are always full,” said People Before Profit councillor Darragh Adelaide at a local area meeting for Clondalkin in December.
“It’s not just that Clondalkin itself is growing – when you look at that part of the city, thousands of apartments are planned to go in over the next decade or so when things are stretched already.”
Councillor Adelaide’s motion called for the council to raise their concerns with the National Transport Authority in the new year.
“There’s an overall lack of public transport options in Clondalkin – people are being forced to use cars because the traffic through the village is extremely bad,” said the councillor.
“A lot of stuff that was promised to the people here when it was being built up have been scrapped. We’ve not even seen investment in bus services.”
Fianna Fáil councillor for Clondalkin, Trevor Gilligan, said that people in his constituency were forced to use cars or bikes instead of public transport.
“People use a bike more often because of the traffic. I was on the Luas last weekend and barely got on myself,” said Cllr Gilligan.
"We need to find a way to increase capacity. People have to use their cars because we don’t have the public transport in and around Clondalkin.
“Even to get to red line when you are living in some parts of the area, you might not even get a feeder bus because they disappear – we specifically need capacity on the red luas.”
Independent councillor for the area, Francis Timmons, also raised his concerns about building more homes in parts of the county without the adequate public transport.
"If you go up the Red Cow Luas stop at certain times of the day, it’s always full, it’s overcapacity. These are huge concerns and its a huge failure in public transport,” he said.
“It took me an hour and a half to get through the village recently because the traffic was too mental. I have concerns about more houses coming up – we will have 7,900 more houses here eventually.
“We have more houses with no transport system, no bus drivers and they are talking of a Luas extension only in 2040.”