Dublin gets first glimpse of new generation trams

Bertie Ahern was today introducing Ireland’s first light rail tram, some two years before the system gets up and running.

The tram - a state-of-the-art model light years from the type that once trundled around Dublin - was being launched in Merrion Square.

Though parts of the city are already being excavated to make way for the LUAS transport network, causing intense traffic disruption as a result, the trams will not start running until mid-2003 at the earliest, and it will be another two years after that before all the lines are in place.

The scheme, which is being constructed in stages, is costing in excess of £500m but its backers say the eventual result will be the ending of many of the snarl-ups that now congest Dublin on a daily basis as the city attempts to cope with record car numbers.

The first French-manufactured tram has already been unveiled by Public Enterprise Minister Mary O’Rourke at an international transport conference in London’s Earl’s Court earlier this year but now it has arrived in Ireland.

It is one of 40 that have been ordered for the Dublin system, at a total cost of more than £66m.

With extensions, the trams have 60 seats and standing accommodation for another 175 passengers.