Dublin's Luas system is to be upgraded with a rebuilt Luas stop at St Stephen's Green, electronic "notice boards" at all stops and new ticket-vending machines at seven stops across both routes. Tim O'Brien reports.
The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) which advertised phase one of the work on the Government's e-tendering website this week said "passenger frequency patterns" had dictated the changes.
The biggest change will be to the St Stephen's Green stop where the platform will be widened along its 50-metre length, taking up some of the existing footpath.
The work will include moving the ticket and electronic display machines as well as handrails and fencing.
Also included is the "remodelling" of the concrete base and "recutting and relaying" of the paving. But the tender stipulates that work will be done "while a full tram service operates".
St Stephen's Green is the busiest Luas stop with between 20,000 and 30,000 passengers a day.
The tender deadline is September 13th and the RPA believes the undertaking can be completed "in a couple of months", leaving all work finished by Christmas.
The RPA is also planning to install electronic notice-boards pointing out local "attractors" such as museums, shopping centres and connections to buses and other forms of public transport.
The notice-boards would provide information about the tram stop location and its place in the network.
In addition, stops as Jervis Street, Connolly, Heuston, St Stephen's Green, Dundrum, Milltown and Windy Arbour are to get new ticket machines, to meet passenger demand.
"Luas Rage" - where passengers miss their tram because the person in front is slow in choosing a ticket - had been mostly resolved by increasing the speed of the ticket machines after the first few months of operation, said RPA spokesman Ger Hannon.
The new ticket machine arrangements reflect user patterns such as the number of people opting for single tickets instead of weekly ones - or vice versa - which the RPA said it could not predict in advance.
"It is difficult to predict the patterns when you get to a very fine grain level," Mr Hannon said.
The demand for Luas services was very steady throughout the day, particularly on the Green line, he added. "We predicted 20 million passengers and we will do that too."