The Railway Procurement Agency, RPA, has assured me that the Sandyford — Green — Luas line and Tallaght — Red — Luas line will be completed within the €775 million budget and risk provision, as notified to the Government in December 2002. The agency has allocated 14 40 metre long trams which will accommodate 315 persons per tram, to the Green line and 26 30 metre long trams which will accommodate 235 persons per tram, to the Red line. Based on trams running at five minute intervals at peak times, the Green line will have a carrying capacity of 3,780 persons per direction per hour, while the capacity of the Red line will some 2,820 passengers per hour per direction.
Current Railway Procurement Agency's RPA estimates of patronage on the total system suggest that after a ramp-up period of approximately 18 months, there will be an annual patronage of approximately 20 million passengers on the network in a fully operational year. This translates as a daily Luas patronage of approximately 60,000 passengers per day. There is scope for increasing frequency of service and the capacity of trams substantially beyond these initial numbers, to meet growing demand.
Based on estimates of revenue from fare box, and projected operations and maintenance cost for Luas, determined prior to operations commencing, the agency expects that the Luas will operate at approximately break-even from 2006 onwards. However, these estimates will be revised over the coming months as a pattern of demand for the services emerges from actual operations.
