Dublin commuters living in the areas served by the Luas lines will have to cope with long delays if the tram service is disrupted because of repair work on the tracks, Opposition politicians warned yesterday.
Although a spokesman for the Luas said it was hoped the work could be carried out without huge disruption, he accepted that the scale of the repairs required on almost eight kilometres (five miles) of track still had to be assessed.Fine Gael spokeswoman on transport Olivia Mitchell has expressed concern that the Rail Procurement Agency no longer appeared certain that there would be no disruption for commuters who have come to depend on the Luas service. "It would cause huge congestion on the roads if people were forced back into their cars because of disruption to the Luas service," she said.
"Those who have no option but to use the bus would be left in a dreadful position because Dublin Bus have removed a number of services from the areas served by Luas with indecent haste."
Ms Mitchell said the latest setback for Luas was a pity because the service had been working well and the people using the system were pleased at how it had been operating.
Eamon Ryan, Green Party spokesman on transport, also expressed concern at the potential for disruption and said it was deeply embarrassing that flaws had been exposed so quickly.
"Luas has been a huge success, but any disruption so soon after it was opened would be remarkable. The really surprising aspect of the report on the flaws in the bonding system under the track is that it was known about before the lines even opened.
"It might have been better to delay the opening of the line until all these problems were dealt with, but I suspect that there was huge political pressure to get it running, in spite of the flaws that had been spotted," he said.
Luas spokesman Ger Hannon said while it had not been decided how precisely to deal with the cracks in the bonding material under the line, no digging up of roadway in the city centre would be required.
He said it would probably be necessary to lift sections of rail in order to put clips and fastenings in place along with any new system of sealing off the track supports from the weather.
Mr Hannon said it was hoped most of the work could be carried out at night to minimise disruption.
He said it might be necessary to use a cross-over system whereby all the trams would use a stretch of single line while work was being done on the other line.
He added, however, that it was too early to say if this would happen. The repair work is expected to get under way in a few months' time.