Luas Red Line

Opening barely a month after the first Luas line, the Red Line came into service in September 2004. At the time of writing, it is still the longest light railway line in Ireland. It stretches from inner city Dublin all the way out to the town centre of the suburb of Tallaght, with 23 stations. In the planning phase, the line was known as Lines A and C. 'A' covered the Tallaght to Abbey Street section, and 'C' the remainder as far as Connolly Station mainline train terminal.

In December 2009, the city centre terminus was extended as far as the emerging Point Village, a new urban development east of the centre near the docks. This short extension runs through densely developed urban areas.

In July 2011, a spur was added to the end of the line at Tallaght. This runs from Belgard stop out to the Citywest office park, a large multipurpose area on the edge of the city with industrial, office, leisure and residential developments. From here it finally terminates northeast of the small village of Saggart.

Update 01/09/2024: There has been no update on the Red Line extension to Ringsend in some time. This tweet from 3 years ago shows a map of one of the routes being studied. The route in the map can be seen to be going down Irishtown Road in Ringsend. The extension is also mentioned on page 12 of this PDF from Transport Infrastructure Ireland from 2019 where it is listed as part of a 2035 network. It is looking like the extension will have to wait until construction is well under way on the current huge round of projects such as DART+ and Metrolink so that planning resources can be freed up.

Update 23/01/2025: Good news for Luas Poolbeg, as it is moving forward as a project, and now entering Phase 1. The project will extend the Luas Red Line from Point Village (serving the popular music venue 3Arena) to Ringsend and on to the Poolbeg peninsula:

The NTA confirmed the Luas Poolbeg pre-feasibility study has been completed and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has been instructed to progress the project to Phase 1 of the NTA’s Project Approval Guidelines in 2026, including the procurement of engineering designers.

In 2021, the NTA considered the Luas to Poolbeg a long-term project that would not be examined until after 2042, based on demand projections at that time. That position has now changed significantly.

Wikipedia page on Luas

PICTURES OF LUAS RED LINE: (none yet)