Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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61. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the steps that will be taken to improve service on the Luas red line; and if he will account for the current problems with the service. [42042/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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With regard to performance on the red line, I understand that intermittently throughout 2023 there were a number of issues affecting Luas service delivery on the Line. I have been advised that these issues arose due to a combination of two factors; a lack of tram availability, and increased driver absence levels.

In order for a tram to enter into service, it must first go through the usual preventative and corrective maintenance cycles. Issues with tram availability is primarily related to the Luas Operator not being up-to-date with the maintenance cycles on the 40 Red Line trams.

Further, while typically, driver absence on the Luas is around 5%, I understand that at certain times in 2023, the rate of absence was higher than 12%. Unfortunately, the combination of these factors had a negative impact on service provision on the Red Line last year.

That said, I am advised that reliability on the red line has improved during 2024, with a significant reduction in issues with tram availability, and that the Peak Vehicle Requirement of 27 of the 40 available trams for the Red Line has been achieved consistently throughout the year to date.

In relation to issues of overcrowding on the line, during the annual Luas census that was carried out on the Red Line over three days in November 2023, most inbound A1 trams were at approximately 50% capacity. This is categorised as “busy”, but not “critical” or “at capacity.”

Transdev has advised my Department that the ability to implement enhancements on the red line, to cater for increasing passenger demand, is unfortunately restricted by the age of the Luas current fleet. Given these restrictions, enhancements and increased services on the line will not be feasible for Transdev to implement until the fleet replacement plan, currently scheduled for 2028, is completed.