Luas will not be carrying any passengers until 2004, despite assurances of an earlier start, Tim O'Brien reports
Mr Frank Allen, the former banker who was appointed chief executive of Luas earlier this year, has said he is "adamant" that 2004 will see the system operational.
This assurance is not likely to satisfy residents of south Co Dublin who have been told a number of times that Luas would be operational in 2003.
The comments by Mr Allen, who took over the Railway Procurement Agency in August, have cast doubt on the contractors' timetable for the handing over of the system before the end of next year.
Even if this timetable is met, however, Mr Allen has indicated that it would be followed by a running-in period to enable the operator to train staff and satisfy the independent railway inspector's safety criteria.
It would appear that the best-case scenario for the opening of Luas is now the first quarter of 2004, but if Mr Allen's fears for the completion date are justified, it could be later again.
The former minister, Ms Mary O'Rourke, had anticipated a much earlier commencement when she was in office. She declared in February of this year that "services on the Tallaght lines are scheduled to begin before the end of 2003".
The Tallaght line takes precedence in the schedule over the Sandyford route, line B, which is due to open a few months later.
However, if the Tallaght system is not operational until the second or third quarter of 2004, this could push the opening of the Sandyford line back towards 2005.
Such a delay would be particularly unpopular in Dundrum where residents have become used to difficulties in getting their cars out of their driveways and queues from side roads to join main thoroughfares.
Since the opening of the M50 to Ballinteer last year, tens of thousands of vehicles a day have poured down the new motorway and into a bottleneck at Ballinteer.
Residents in the area have endured the building of the Wyckham bypass, the Dundrum bypass, the realignment of the Ballinteer Road, the building of the new shopping centre and now the rebuilding of the old shopping centre.
In addition there is the demolition and rebuilding of the bridge over the Slang river and the building of the Luas bridge, not to mention all the apartment-building along the proposed Luas route.
The prospect of a delay of up to one year waiting for Luas was, according to one resident, "enough to provoke open revolt".
Mr Allen was not available for interview last weekend but answered questions through a spokesman, Mr Ger Hannon.
Mr Hannon confirmed Mr Allen's statement that Luas would not be available to open in 2003, due to training and testing measures which would, he said, take "a few months".
Completion dates and opening dates for the service had been seen as interchangeable, he said, but the position was that if the system was completed by the end of 2003, it would be open to the public by the first quarter of 2004.
"We still feel that it is a bit tight and we are a bit concerned about completing the construction programme by the end of next year," he said.
However, that was as yet more than a year away and he hoped there was "still time to make up time". Mr Hannon said press advertisements reading "next tram due 2003. after that . . . it's every 5 minutes" would not be appearing any more.