THE OPERATORS of Luas have denied that the safety of drivers or passengers was compromised by the failure of communications systems on the light rail system at the weekend.
Veolia Transport confirmed that the radio and automatic vehicle location (AVLS) systems on both Luas lines failed to operate for more than 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon. The passenger information system also failed to operate for much of the day.
One driver who contacted The Irish Timessaid the failure of the drivers' hand-held radios would have left drivers unable to contact base or the emergency services in the event of a crash or other problem.
The failure of the AVLS meant that drivers could not tell how far their trams were from other trams and led to bunching and the possibility of collisions, he claimed.
He also claimed the hand-held radios were intended as a back-up to a cab-based communication system, but this had never worked.
However, a spokeswoman said these systems failures "in no way" affected safety standards on the two lines. Emergency help posts were available at each stop through which drivers could communicate when their radios were not working, as recommended in the instruction manual. Drivers would have to alight from the Luas in order to use these, but there were no safety implications.
Luas drivers were required to drive by line of sight rather than relying on electronic instrumentation, she said, and to take due precautions such as slowing down when turning a corner.
The spokeswoman admitted there were technical problems with the on-board radios on Luas. She said Veolia was working with the Railway Procurement Agency which had supplied the system to sort out these problems.
The difficulties arose on one of the busiest weekends of the year for the light rail system.
