LUAS Lucan

[226 Abhann na Suire]

Hi all, just a couple of musings about Luas Lucan, just said I’d put them here to at least get them out of my muddled brain!

I’ve been looking over the plans for the Luas Lucan Line and I’m a bit confused. The line seems to have an ideal alignment from Adamstown as far as Ballyfermot but I’m unsure as to the route plan from there. I’ve seen plans where the Lucan Line is treated as a branch off of the Red Line (joining at Blackhorse all the way into the city) but I think this should be avoided at all costs as all they can possibly do is decrease frequency to Tallaght, Saggart and Lucan - shooting oneself in the foot!

I have wondered why a Phoenix Park or Chapelizod Road option has not been considered, something similar to below (drawn on in yellow)
as a stop in the park as well as at the Zoo and on Parkgate Street could be built with the line then crossing the Liffey adjacent to the Sean Heuston Bridge with a connecting station at Heuston and path-sharing with the Red Line to the top of Steven’s Lane before heading down James’ Street and into the south city.

I wonder though if there are regulations about putting it through the Park…? It doesn’t serve a lot of populated areas either no matter which route you go here, and while the park option would be good, the Chapelizod Road option would travel around 3 kilometres without a stop which is probably a waste of tram line… And maybe the bridge over the Liffey Valley here is just too elaborate…

However, the best plans I have seen is where it meets the Red Line at Blackhorse, heads up Tyrconnel Road and through Inchicore and along Emmett Road before meeting again at James’s and sharing track for 50 metres before continuing on James’s Street towards Christchurch (drawn on again in yellow below) I have seen plans that suggest it just joins the Red Line instead between Blackhorse and James’s before before continuing on James’s Street towards Christchurch which would (with capacity enhancements on the road-segregated section in question here, be doable) but I still think the above option is preferableI as it a) opens up new areas to Luas access and b) minimises shared corridors to maximise frequency.

And finally I do think that rather than ending it at Trinity (a bit of a middle of nowhere stop transport-wise) a continuation out Townsend Street to link with DART and Metro at the southern Townsend Street entrance to Tara Street Station (in front of the planned Metro stop), and maybe even on down Pearse Street and to the Bord Gáis/Grand Canal or even out as far as Poolbeg and Ringsend (Metro included in dark purple)

 

Just a couple of general musings/ideasI thought I’d share with regards to it as it would be a great asset and a very useful 3rd line for the city if done right!

[LNERW1]

Been thinking a lot about potential Luas alignments recently so was digging around and found this thread. I believe a Poolbeg/Irishtown line was in consideration shortly after Cross City was completed, so you’re not far off TII’s plans I think. If this were built I would worry it’d have to be supplemental to a DART Underground tunnel as it could go the way of the Red Line and find itself burdened with more traffic than it has capacity for. This weekend I pity all the poor people on their way to Blackrock who will probably be forced to take the Luas from Heuston eastward during the marathon (me included ) Obviously every new line built is a good thing but it has to be looked at through a city wide lens.

I love the diagrams by the way! Apple Maps looks very neat and has a great “transit” layer. What have you used to edit them and add new lines? Maybe im projecting because of my fat fingers but they certainly don’t look like they were done in the crappy built in screenshot editor!

Edited October 24 by LNERW1

[226 Abhann na Suire]

On 24/10/2025 at 10:35 AM, LNERW1 said:

Been thinking a lot about potential Luas alignments recently so was digging around and found this thread. I believe a Poolbeg/Irishtown line was in consideration shortly after Cross City was completed, so you’re not far off TII’s plans I think. If this were built I would worry it’d have to be supplemental to a DART Underground tunnel as it could go the way of the Red Line and find itself burdened with more traffic than it has capacity for. This weekend I pity all the poor people on their way to Blackrock who will probably be forced to take the Luas from Heuston eastward during the marathon (me included ) Obviously every new line built is a good thing but it has to be looked at through a city wide lens.

I love the diagrams by the way! Apple Maps looks very neat and has a great “transit” layer. What have you used to edit them and add new lines? Maybe im projecting because of my fat fingers but they certainly don’t look like they were done in the crappy built in screenshot editor!

Thank you!! They in fact were done in that exact crappy screenshot editor as it happens!! And I agree Apple Maps has a good transit layer, millions of times better than Google.

I agree that the line would be supplemental to DU so wouldn’t be doing as much heavy lifting of Heuston-East traffic, but still needs to open up crucial transport areas in south Dublin City for more local journeys.

You’re right about Ringsend, it’s being floated as an extension of the Red Line from the Point back across the Liffey but I feel like it could benefit from a Luas link on the southside too. This would mean Luas Lucan would be more or less a like-for-like replacement of half of the the C-Spine busses, which will be the first Bus Connects corridor to undergo the QBC revamp, so would make sense as a Luas line too.

[LNERW1]

2 hours ago, 226 Abhann na Suire said:

Thank you!! They in fact were done in that exact crappy screenshot editor as it happens!! And I agree Apple Maps has a good transit layer, millions of times better than Google.

I agree that the line would be supplemental to DU so wouldn’t be doing as much heavy lifting of Heuston-East traffic, but still needs to open up crucial transport areas in south Dublin City for more local journeys.

You’re right about Ringsend, it’s being floated as an extension of the Red Line from the Point back across the Liffey but I feel like it could benefit from a Luas link on the southside too. This would mean Luas Lucan would be more or less a like-for-like replacement of half of the the C-Spine busses, which will be the first Bus Connects corridor to undergo the QBC revamp, so would make sense as a Luas line too.

My fat fingers are even more surprised than me! You hardly used an Apple Pencil or stylus or something, or was it just zooming in and being very careful and patient?

As im quite young by this forum’s standards, when I was in primary school in Dublin a classmate’s dad was working on LUAS XC. After it was completed he mentioned to my own dad that their resources were being moved towards the Irishtown route.

If both it and Lucan were built it would be simply idiotic not to connect them. It does raise the question of where would Lucan terminate. I think probably best to have it interline through the Docklands as far as Connolly. As westbound trams almost never terminate at Connolly the eastern leg of the triangle there is often forgotten, but would mean very little infrastructure work would be required to allow this.

Possibly the best way to do this in terms of frequency would be to have half of Lucan trams terminate in a new, east-facing bay at The Point and the other half continue to Connolly, as happens with Red Line trams now. This would also bring frequencies through the docklands to the same level as the rest of the Red Line, helpful for a potential Spencer Dock station.

I would try illustrate this as well as you, but unfortunately am on my phone at the moment, so cannot use my preferred medium, NIMBYrails. Hopefully the way I have explained it makes sense.

Edit: sorry, should have clarified that as part of this the entire Irishtown route would be part of the Lucan line.

Edited Tuesday at 16:20 by LNERW1

[226 Abhann na Suire]

On 28/10/2025 at 4:18 PM, LNERW1 said:

My fat fingers are even more surprised than me! You hardly used an Apple Pencil or stylus or something, or was it just zooming in and being very careful and patient?

As im quite young by this forum’s standards, when I was in primary school in Dublin a classmate’s dad was working on LUAS XC. After it was completed he mentioned to my own dad that their resources were being moved towards the Irishtown route.

If both it and Lucan were built it would be simply idiotic not to connect them. It does raise the question of where would Lucan terminate. I think probably best to have it interline through the Docklands as far as Connolly. As westbound trams almost never terminate at Connolly the eastern leg of the triangle there is often forgotten, but would mean very little infrastructure work would be required to allow this.

Possibly the best way to do this in terms of frequency would be to have half of Lucan trams terminate in a new, east-facing bay at The Point and the other half continue to Connolly, as happens with Red Line trams now. This would also bring frequencies through the docklands to the same level as the rest of the Red Line, helpful for a potential Spencer Dock station.

I would try illustrate this as well as you, but unfortunately am on my phone at the moment, so cannot use my preferred medium, NIMBYrails. Hopefully the way I have explained it makes sense.

Edit: sorry, should have clarified that as part of this the entire Irishtown route would be part of the Lucan line.

Just patient zooming in and out…! Kind of therapeutic if you find yourself with the time for it!

I like your plan for interlining with the Red Line back through the docks, I suspect however that it might more-so be a case of both the Red Line extension and the Lucan Line sharing tracks from Ringsend village out through Irishtown, and into the huge Glassbottle site and all of that development land in Poolbeg.

There’s an emerging preferred option coming out from the NTA in the next while apparently, I wonder when that’s due…? 

[LNERW1]

2 hours ago, 226 Abhann na Suire said:

Just patient zooming in and out…! Kind of therapeutic if you find yourself with the time for it!

I like your plan for interlining with the Red Line back through the docks, I suspect however that it might more-so be a case of both the Red Line extension and the Lucan Line sharing tracks from Ringsend village out through Irishtown, and into the huge Glassbottle site and all of that development land in Poolbeg.

There’s an emerging preferred option coming out from the NTA in the next while apparently, I wonder when that’s due…? 

My thought with sharing track through the Docklands is that it’s a fairly developed area, and even more is planned (the most exciting IMO is Waterfront South Central as it’ll have a 167m skyscraper, although an ugly one unfortunately), so it would be a good idea to increase frequency to that of the majority of the Red line. Same with all the new Glass Bottle development; maybe the two could interline from Connolly round to Pearse?

Apart from being useful it could be helpful in setting a precedent of duplicating certain sections of the DART by way of interchanging with two different stations along the line- this could be immensely helpful for disruptions on both systems. Say for example an over tall lorry has hit a bridge between Tara St and Pearse, those wanting to get between the two still can by rail, by travelling back up to Connolly, and around the quays and Irishtown via the LUAS, or, if the Tom Clarke Bridge is damaged, anyone wanting to get from Irishtown to The Point can go the long way round via DART.

That’s not a particularly important aspect of a potential line but I do think it’s a necessary consideration.