Sipping a cappuccino under the classical canopy of the old Harcourt Street Station, one can't help but feel a tingle as a sleek lilac-coloured Luas tram glides by, clanging its soft warning chimes. A leisurely look at Luas with artist Pat Liddy
When Harcourt Street was first laid out around 1775 the only transport to trundle along the thoroughfare was horse-drawn.
In 1859 a new railway terminus, designed by George Wilkinson, for the Dublin and South Eastern Railway Company was opened. Exactly 100 years later the railway was closed down but the beautiful terminus, resplendent with its Tuscan pillars and an imposing arched entrance, was saved for other uses. Today the venerable station fittingly looks down upon the Luas halt and the gentle toing-and-froing of the trams.
I have long and eagerly awaited the arrival of trams back onto our streets after their 55-year absence. I first encountered street trams (apart from my occasional childhood experiences on the enchanting Howth open-topped double-deckers which were sadly withdrawn by 1959) during a visit to Rome in 1964. Something was fired in me. I was convinced that sophisticated and well-run cities of the future, Dublin included, would have to have trams as part of their traffic solution.
From the 1830s the impact of the new railway systems on the Dublin and Irish landscape was immense. Intriguing cuttings and multi-arched embankments, elegant bridges and impressive viaducts, grandiose terminals and quaint country stations, graceful steam-engines and varied rolling stock were supplied to a high standard of practical and aesthetic design.
The best architects and engineers of the day were usually engaged to oversee construction. Organised landscaping, self-seeding and natural selection all combined to provide linear green belts alongside the rural and suburban trackways. In short, the railways have left behind a rich and varied heritage that today we may take somewhat for granted.
Over a century has since passed with little or no new impact on the built and natural environment being contributed by the railways.
However, the introduction of a light rail system into Dublin has again afforded exciting new opportunities for creating a whole new urban ambience and the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) has not been slow in recognising this.
In perhaps the single largest landscaping project ever seen in Dublin, spread over three council regions, the 32km of track will be enhanced by a very varied and comprehensive planting programme using mainly native species, that will incorporate some 3,000 semi-mature trees and over 200,000 saplings, shrubs and herbaceous plants.
The RPA has also engaged in a very extensive and ongoing art programme. Communities will be asked to Adopt a Stop, a concept that will encourage the input of their own creative ideas around the given parameters of modular halt construction. As Luas is further extended over the coming years, so too will the public art agenda expand to the enrichment of the city and of its individual neighbourhoods.
For me, one of the most welcome attributes of the Luas is that travelling on it opens up vistas and panoramas hitherto denied, passed by or hidden from general view.
A whole new outlook over the city's historic streetscapes, many of them until the arrival of Luas only secondary or backwater streets, offers fresh appeal to both commuters and visitors.