1. The course of the line
    Southern section  Luas Cross City  Stops  Bridges  Depots{{Anchor|LUAS depots}} 

2. Proposed developments

3. Gallery

4. See also

5. References

6. External links

The Green Line ({{Lang-ga|Líne Uaine}}) is one of the two lines of Dublin's Luas light rail system.

The Green Line was formerly entirely in the south side of Dublin city. It mostly follows the route of the old Harcourt Street railway line, which was reserved for possible re-use when it closed in 1958. The Green Line allows for passenger transfers at O’ Connell GPO and Marlborough to Luas Red Line services and also allows commuters to use Broombridge as an interchange station to reach outer suburbs such as Castleknock and Ongar.

The Green Line from St Stephen's Green to Sandyford launched on 30 June 2004. An extension to the Bride's Glen stop at Cherrywood was opened on 16 October 2010.

As of 2018, the Green line is operating at near maximum capacity during the morning and evening rush hours, and it experiences mass overcrowding and congestion at these times. To assist in alleviating this congestion, seven new longer trams entered service in 2018. Platforms between St Stephen's Green and Sandyford have been lengthened to accommodate the new trams.^[1]

The course of the line

The section of the South St Stephen's Green makes significant re-use of the old Harcourt Street railway line while the northbound route of the newer Cross City section mainly re-uses the old Midland Great Western Railway line after skirting the former site of Broadstone railway works and station.

Southern section

Between Harcourt Street and Charlemont, the Green Line takes a large loop east around buildings which did not exist between 1859 and 1959. As such, there is no train bridge on Adelaide Road for the current line, as there had been for the Harcourt Street Line.

The line then follows the old alignment of the Harcourt Street line from Charlemont station as far as the current Sandyford stop (known as "Stillorgan" on the Harcourt Street line). After Sandyford the line detours over the Leopardstown Road/Brewery Road junction so as to run west around the Leopardstown Racecourse before rejoining the original alignment just north of Carrickmines.^[2] The Harcourt Street line had run around the eastern edge of the racecourse, via Silverpark. Remnants of the old Foxrock Station are visible at the back of The Hedgerows in Foxrock. The route deviation was seemingly intended to serve the new properties that would have been built during the "Celtic Tiger" boom, before the Extension was open.

After this detour around Leopardstown Racecourse, the current line runs roughly along the original alignment with some minor detours, particularly prevalent at Laughanstown.

The Carrickmines/Bride's Glen section had also intended to have terminated into what should have a "Celtic Boom" town centre, similar to the Tallaght area Stops, until the Line B2 extension to Fassaroe/Bray is built. This is why, as of 2018, this end of the Green Line seemingly goes to the middle of nowhere, through fields, as nearly all the property that was intended to be serviced by the line, was never built, as of 2018. This is also why there were unused "Ghost" Stops built, to serve these unbuilt areas.

There are some other cosmetic differences between the Harcourt Street Line and the current Green Line, such as the positioning of the Ranelagh stop. The location of Ranelagh on the former line was at the current Beechwood stop. The old Ranelagh stop was the last stop on the old line before the train reached the city.

Luas Cross City

Construction of Luas Cross City began in June 2013 and it opened on 9 December 2017.^[4][5] The Rosie Hackett Bridge carrying the new line over the river Liffey was opened on 20 May 2014.

The new section begins at the former city centre terminus, St. Stephen's Green, crosses the Red Line near the Abbey stop, and continues northwards, terminating at Broombridge station. There it connects passengers using Iarnród Éireann commuter services to Maynooth railway station and M3 Parkway railway station.

Stops

Bridges

The line re-uses some existing bridges and viaducts and has had new bridges specially constructed. The new build William Dargan Bridge at Dundrum crosses the Slang River. The River Liffey is crossed by the new Rosie Hackett Bridge southbound and the existing O'Connell Bridge northbound. The River Dodder is crossed by the Nine Arches Bridge originally constructed for the Harcourt Street railway line in 1854.

Depots{{Anchor|LUAS depots}}

The Green line initially was provisioned with a works depot just past the Sandyford terminus and opposite the old Stillorgan Railway station building. The depot could stable 32 trams. When the Green line was extended to Broombridge a further depot was constructed over part of the old Liffey Junction site. It was named Hamilton Depot in honour of William Rowan Hamilton who developed the quaternion mathematical number system.^[7] The primary control facility for the LUAS system for such functions as power and signally lies at the Red line LUAS depot at Red Cow. Following a storm damage incident in October 2017 at Red Cow it was found the depots at Broombridge and Sandyford were not able to take over the function and the whole LUAS system was suspended for to days.^[8]

Proposed developments

Some versions of plans for the Dublin Metro, known as MetroLink, proposed that the Luas Green Line would be replaced by metro services. This proposal was, as of 2018, a revised and combined version of the 2011 plans for "Metro North", and included an upgrade of a section of Luas Green Line tramline, to Metro standards. If completed as planned, Metro trains would replace Luas trams between Charlemont and Sandyford.^[6] If built as per these plans, Metrolink would enter a tunnel at Charlemont, and continue under Dublin City Centre to Dublin Airport and the Northside of Dublin. Unlike Luas, it would not run on the street.^[7]

This version of the plan was controversial, both due to some residents feeling that the closing of road crossings would "cut their community in two". Also some are not happy with having to change between a Luas and a Metro, on the longer journey, and have also raised the issue that the carriages may be full. In February 2019 it was suggested that the plans would change - at least partly in response to concerns raised during the consultative process.^[8][9]

Gallery

See also

• Luas
• Red Line

References

External links

• LUAS Cross City Project Website
• Green Line stops on LUAS website

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