The Luas Green Line from Sandyford to St Stephen's Green in Dublin was out of commission for more than five hours yesterday morning because of a tram derailment at the Sandyford depot.
The accident happened at 4am in an area of the depot yard that is not accessible to the public and no one was injured.
A Luas spokeswoman said it was not known how the tram came off its rails, but the incident was currently under investigation by the Luas technical team.
Services on the Green Line did not begin operation until 9.15am, even though no other vehicle was involved in the accident. "The location of the derailed tram did cause difficulties and affected the service of other trams on the line, basically the other trams couldn't get out until the problem was fixed."
This is the third Luas tram to have been derailed this year. Two of the derailments happened within depots, one on the Green Line and one on the Red Line from Tallaght to Connolly Station.
The third incident occurred when a truck struck a tram on the Red Line at Queen Street, in the Smithfield area of Dublin in February. Five people were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Luas trams were involved in 22 road accidents involving other road vehicles during their first six months in operation.
Trams running on the Red Line were involved in 18 accidents during the line's first three months in operation.
