Luas is self sufficent the current surplus situation is likely to be sufficent to cover mid life overhaul and large scale infrastructure renewals which you would expect on a 15-20 year cycle thats quite impressive
The major issue is that Luas is the write off of capital while the DART is still carrying a loan it should never have not forgetting IE get handed the entire CIE lending bill in 1987 leaving DB and BE debt free
Imagine this
Luas cost 792 million, that includes the EU grant
Carries say 24 million a year
Design life of the equipment is 30 years
Works out as 1.10 euro per passenger per journey
Now you can add inflation and interest rates into that to reveal the true cost and supprise supprise you probably get close to 6 euro. But that assumes the cost was paid from loans not directly out of tax income / surplus etc
Put simply
1. Luas is profitable for day to day costs and possibly mid life renewal
2. It makes a massive contribution to the city and its suburbs
3. Could we live without it, 2 years on probably not
4. All passenger projections have been surpassed
This is just another Sean Barrett style drive my car mise me fein approach. Maybe someone should study the double digit subvention on flights to regional airports
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