What commuters can expect: After 45 years, 29 days and 12 hours, give or take a few minutes, tram services will return to Dublin streets on Wednesday morning. Tim O'Brien reports on what Dubliners may expect.
Passengers embarking on their first Luas journey from Sandyford to St Stephen's Green on Wednesday will find a service offering an alternative to the current rush-hour misery of a six m.p.h journey into the city centre. Luas should see them, at least in theory, speed into town in 22 minutes along a track at speeds of up to 70 m.p.h.
Once the Luas doors close at Sandyford you can barely hear the tram roll slowly off along the few yards to the Stillorgan stop. Here you can briefly enjoy the sight of long lines of traffic either side of the Upper Kilmacud Road junction, before the light changes and Luas is off like a hare out of a trap.
The line heads downhill into Kilmacud where the new Luas stop has already been decorated by graffiti artists. Landscape gardeners have been working overtime to improve the concrete appearance of the station. This is also the spot where Luas trams have been attacked by egg-throwing youths.
"We wash them," the chief executive of the Railway Procurement Agency Mr Frank Allen said when asked what he does about the egg-marked trams.
The journey continues along the route of the old Harcourt Street railway line to the next stop, "a Luas plaza", at Balally. This stop is under a new apartment and shopping development and is just across the road from the new multi-million euro Dundrum Shopping Centre currently under development. It will be a busy place for shoppers, but a park-and-ride site won't open until July.
Next the tram runs parallel to Dundrum Main Street to a stop just before the Luas bridge. Unlike the former Dundrum Railway Station, the Luas stop has no ticket office, waiting rooms, toilets or goods rooms.
The tram rolls across Taney Bridge and on to Windy Arbour where the ground starts to fall away as the line approaches the nine arches bridge at Milltown. Here the views over the Dodder linear park are magnificent - if brief - as Luas approaches the Milltown stop, to the back of the Alexandra College playing fields.
At Cowper, the line runs between the rear garages of the large red brick houses of Dublin 6. The potential for mews homes fronting on to the line is obvious. Cowper is the last stop where commuters may legally park for free.
There used to be a bridge across Dunville Avenue at the Beechwood stop, but it was too low to be replaced. The RPA decided not to raise a new bridge and the line descends to road level to cross the intersection, before rising again as it approaches Ranelagh.
There is a good view of Ranelagh Road before Luas crosses the new Charlemont bridge over the Grand Canal and passes between office blocks to the Charlemont ramp.
This is the spot were cars have driven up off the street in recent weeks. Despite this, the RPA says safety barriers are not necessary.
The next stop is at the old Harcourt Street station, which marks the end of the old Harcourt Street line. Luas then continues down Harcourt Street past Noelle Campbell-Sharpe's Origin Gallery. A Luas critic, she claimed during construction that damage was being done to her business. An RPA spokesman has confirmed she later asked for a stop outside her gallery.
With a final clatter of bells, the tram crosses the St Stephen's Green junction. Traffic here is to be reversed from July 5th, with the introduction by Dublin City Council of a new traffic management plan for the Green.
Then the journey is over. Under test conditions it took just over 20 minutes. The schedule is 22 minutes. But, according to Frank Allen, "that depends on other road users too".