Operation and Maintenance

Luas is operated and maintained by Transdev under contract to TII and the National Transport Authority (NTA). The Operating and Maintenance Contract is a gross cost, management contract that commenced in December 2019 and will expire in September 2026. Revenue risk is borne by TII. There is a performance bonus and penalty structure in place based on a number of key performance indicators.

General Obligations

The Operator manages all aspects of day-to-day operations, which include:

• Operating the tram service to the service specification;
• Maintenance of infrastructure;
• Maintenance of trams;
• Management of safety;
• Operating additional tram services upon request;
• Management of all passenger interfaces, passenger information and communications;
• Management of fare evasion and revenue protection;
• Management of security;
• Revenue collection;
• Management of Luas park and ride sites including revenue collection and parking enforcement;
• Management of the Luas infrastructure and vehicle maintenance contracts (by novation agreement). The Operator takes some performance risk related to infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance;
• Management of the interface between Luas and local authorities, emergency services, local residents, the media and any other third parties;
• Management of Luas energy consumption;
• Assistance with the testing and commissioning for extensions to the Luas system.

TII retains certain functions of the novated maintenance contracts, for example the right to terminate or alter the terms of those contracts. TII retains ownership of the Luas brand and responsibility for marketing Luas.

Performance

The Operator is required to achieve certain performance standards. These key performance indicators are defined in the O&M Contract. The payment mechanism in the contract is structured so as to incentivise good performance in accordance with these indicators. The main measures of performance include:

• The percentage of timetabled kilometres operated
• Reliability, measured by evenness of headways between trams
• Service Quality, based on such aspects as cleanliness of the system and availability of certain systems (ticket vending machines (TVMs) and passenger information systems for example)
• Fare Evasion, based on the level of fare evasion measured by TII’s surveys