On the 9th of December, 2017, the Green Line of Dublin’s Luas light rail system was extended north from St. Stephen’s Green to Broombridge, providing a connection with the Red Line in the city centre. Of course, such an addition means a new map, which is always fun.

Zone-based fare systems can be tricky to incorporate into transit maps, and Dublin’s taken an unusual approach, breaking the city up into large zone “blocks” that extend out to the limits of the map, where the labels for the zones are. Stations that can act as being in zone or the other depending on direction of travel are placed in the empty white area between the zones. This approach works fairly well, although the big gap between Zone Central and Red Zone 1 looks like an error at first glance. A little unfortunately, the gaps between the other zones are visually suggestive of major roads, perhaps creating a false impression of the geography of the city (which is nowhere as regular as this blocky grid might imply).

I’m not entirely sure what the smaller line name labels at some stations represent… they seem to indicate both an interchange with the other line (see Abbey Street on the Red Line) and also a short-turn terminus (see Sandyford on the Green Line). Without a legend, it’s all a bit of a mystery!

Finally, the junction on the Green Line where the section to/from Broombridge joins onto the one-way downtown loop is very poorly drawn, as there’s no way that a reader can easily trace the path of a southbound train from Dominick to Parnell. Some sort of wye needs to be indicated here to give the right flow to the routes.

Our rating: Functional enough, if a little idiosyncratic in execution. Unusual depiction of zones. Two-and-a-half stars.

Source: Luas website