Luas to run late night service at Christmas

Dubliners will benefit from late-night Luas services during the Christmas period.

Dubliners will benefit from late-night Luas services during the Christmas period.

Specific timetable details of the extra services are expected to be made known later this week, although earlier talk of a 24-hour service during the holiday period was ruled out by the company.

A spokeswoman for Connex, the Luas network operator, yesterday said: "Yes, we can confirm that a late-night Luas service will be offered to customers over the holiday period. We are currently in discussions with staff to sort out arrangements for the extra work, but a full announcement will be made in due course."

The Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, has already announced that the number of trams per hour on the Connolly to Tallaght line is to increase from six to eight.

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Connex said customers will face a fixed fare of €4 to travel on the after-hours service. Tickets will be available from the machines at station platforms. Luas trams have carried almost four million passengers since the Green line came into operation in July.

Elsewhere, Dublin Bus is to once again run additional Nitelink services from the beginning of December until the New Year.

Late-night buses will run nightly from the city centre to the suburbs as per normal at weekends throughout the year.

There is no intention again to run any late-night DART services, according to an Iarnród Éireann spokeswoman.

The service, which was run for five years up until the 2002 Christmas period, is not being continued as a result of "slow demand".

"We didn't run the service last year and there is no intention of running it this year.

"In previous years, even with a significant publicity campaign, demand for late- night DARTs was very small," the spokeswoman said.