John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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76. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the plans that have been put into operation to resolve the ongoing problems with regard to the introduction of the Luas cross city project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16273/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The LUAS attracts very high levels of passenger demand, and growth in numbers since the extension of the Green Line came into service has been very high: 28% increase on the Green Line and 5% increase on the Red Line.

Following on from the opening of the LUAS Cross City in December 2017, I held a meeting on 15 March with all key Agencies who have a part to play in delivering LUAS services – National Transport Authority (NTA), Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), Transdev and the tram manufacturer, Alstom. Discussions centred on the recent electrical fault with the new longer 55m trams and addressed what they are doing to ensure the availability of trams and full services on the Green Line. The Agencies outlined the range of actions they were developing to address difficulties and to put in place additional peak time capacity on LUAS services.

Since that meeting, those mitigating actions have been implemented and that has resulted in a marked improvement in the planned vehicle requirements on the Green Line being met at peak times. Two of the new 55m trams recently resumed service on the Green line with a third introduced last week. I also understand that the NTA and TII are working with all relevant parties and expect to introduce a new service timetable to make optimum use of the 7 new longer trams. This new timetable will improve services across the Green Line and also the Red Line.