The latest proposal from the National Transport Authority, ‘The Preferred Route’ was published at the beginning of April.

This proposed that the Metrolink would go no further south than Charlemont Station, though the actual tunnel would terminate just short of the Beechwood stop.

However it is planned that the tunnel south of Charlemont would stay underground and be used for parking trains. The tunnel would only emerge and link up with the Luas track, as a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel to be part of some future project, when all the possibilities for increasing Luas capacity were exhausted.

These possibilities for increasing the capacity of the Luas would be:

• Making all Luas trams full length (by end 2022.)
• Increasing the frequency of trams to one every two minutes at peak times. This would be achieved by running extra trams on the Sandyford – St Stephen’s Green stretch. This would make maximum use of the old railway line and avoid trams getting stuck behind each other in city traffic. (Possibly in place by 2025/2026)

However, greater frequency of trams would have implications for the Dunville Avenue level-crossing.

One tram every 2 minutes in each direction equates to one tram every minute. While this would probably only be true at peak times, it would make crossing difficult for people going to work and school in the morning.