LUAS tram,Forty to be delivered to Dublin
The Minister for Public Enterprise has said that Dublin's LUAS project is "on track and on schedule". Mary O'Rourke was speaking in London at the unveiling of the first LUAS tram to come off the production line. The French company, Alstom, manufactured the trams and will be supplying 40 of them at a total cost of €84m. The first one is due for delivery in Dublin this autumn, but LUAS will not be open until 2003. Line A (Tallaght to Connolly station) will be running by summer 2003 and Line B (Sandyford to Stephen's Green) starts running in October 2003.
The tram, which can carry 235 passengers, is 30 metres long with a driver's cab at each end. A slightly longer model will also be in use in Dublin. The same type of tram is now in use in nine other cities, including Melbourne and Rotterdam. Speaking to RTÉ News today, Ms O'Rourke said, "LUAS is coming to Dublin. It's about time we got a decent rail system."
