Dubliners chuffed by streetcar named Luas

Dubliners were given another chance to inspect the city's new trams yesterday as part of a Luas safety awareness day.

Interest in them was brisk, even if they were not exactly showstoppers, perhaps reflecting their growing familiarity on the city's streets.

Marie Kelly (21) and her friend Franchesca O'Rourke (20), from Belgard, described the new trams as "brill!" Yes, they would be confirmed users, they said, but the fact the tram went to within yards of their favourite nightclubs, while not running into the early hours, was a little disappointing. The last tram would be running at 12.30 a.m., they explained.

Mr Jimmy Wiley (78), also from Belgard, had other issues on his mind. A tram worker who began with the Dublin United Tramway in 1940, he carried a brass United Tramway Employee Pass. Would it work on the Luas?

"Well, it won't, but I heard the free travel pass - I've had that 13 years - will work. But then yesterday they said they were talking about it so now I don't know."

As the safety day got under way the Railway Procurement Agency confirmed that the senior citizen pass would be valid at all times on the Luas, and not subject to rush-hour restrictions.

Mr Wiley, who started work as a ticket boy, had a 62-year-old photograph of his fellow workers' United Tramway football team, in which he is the youngest member.

"They were drivers and collectors and mechanics and others. I wanted to be a conductor but I was one inch too short. I ended up working in the stores."

Mr Tom Manning of the RPA, dressed in a Luas baseball cap and T-shirt, handed out safety leaflets alongside Emma Rafferty of the Luas operator, Connex. The leaflets advised pedestrians and motorists to stay away from Luas lines.

Connex will operate Luas for the next year, and was happy to accept RPA estimates of passenger numbers of about 20 million passenger journeys in the first year, Ms Rafferty explained.

However, scepticism has expressed by some economists who claimed the estimated payment to Connex of €20 million was too close to the estimated €20 million in receipts from fares, based on passenger numbers similar to the DART service.

A Department of Transport spokesman said that there would be no question of an operating subsidy, "unless in the doomsday situation".