The cross-city Luas is barely launched - and very expensive proposals have already emerged to alter it

Michael McDowell: When the Luas Green Line was first announced and planned, its route was right beside where I live. I welcomed the project then and still have good feelings about it. Those, like me, who live near it are entirely used to it, including peak-time noise levels which are certainly no louder than road traffic in an urban setting. I would have no objection either to its becoming a metro light rail – if that makes economic and social sense. Like many projects, the Luas Green Line has become a victim of its own success. The result of the cross-city Luas project has not yet been what most people expected. Its extension to Bride’s Glen and the failure to punctually provide extra extended-length tram sets for the line has resulted in Tokyo-like over-crowding for rush-hour commuters. The few longer tram sets delivered to date have now encountered technical problems and have been withdrawn so that those problems can been remedied.

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