THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING #TRA2024
Thank you to all of the 4000+attendees, 150+ exhibitors and many more for making TRA 2024 Dublin, a record-breaking success!
TRA 2024 Technical Tours
As part of the TRA 2024 programme, we are delighted to announce that we have some interesting offsite technical tours that will take place throughout the week. These tours are available to book through the registration portal.
All times listed below include travel time between the RDS and the tour venue and are subject to change.
National Train Control Centre (NTCC)
Iarnród Éireann’s new National Train Control Centre (NTCC) will go live in Summer 2025. It will be the centre for the management and regulation of train movements on the network. Delegates will see a fully operational centre, visiting the Signalling Control Room, Operational Control Rooms, Network Management Centre (NMC), Emergency Strategic Command Centre and Training Simulator.
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The NTCC will facilitate the co-location of the metropolitan traffic unit of An Garda Síochána (AGS) plus the traffic control arrangements operated by Dublin City Council (DCC). NTCC is implementing state of the art rail control system technology.
The system is based on hyper-converged IT infrastructure and microservices based software architecture to provide extremely high resilient and scalable solution making the NTCC a key pillar for the IE expansion programme over the coming decade. The Traffic Management System being delivered by the project is one of the first in the world to implement dynamic control boundaries.
The building has been constructed to comply with Near Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) standards.
Availability:
There will be two tours available each day at the following times
Tuesday 16th April
Tour 1: 08:30 – 10:30
Tour 2: 09:00 – 11:30
Wednesday 17th April
Tour 1: 08:30 – 10:30
Tour 2: 09:00 – 11:30
Thursday 18th April
Tour 1: 08:30 – 10:30
Tour 2: 09:00 – 11:30
Price: €25
Please Note: The maximum capacity for each of these tours is 20 people.
*Delegates for Tour 1 will use public transport* to travel to Heuston Station, meeting on the concourse at 08:30hrs. Delegates will return to RDS via a shuttle bus provided by NTA and Dublin Bus.
Tour 2 will depart from the RDS at 09:00hrs and travel to and from NTCC Heuston Station via a shuttle bus provided by NTA and Dublin Bus.
**Delegates will be provided with a TFI Leap Card to be used on Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin City services, Luas and Irish Rail DART and Commuter Rail within the Short Hop Zone.
Supported by National Transport Authority and Dublin Bus
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The control centre was constructed in 2020 as part of an upgrade and extension to the existing Dublin Tunnel Control Building. The main control room features a 3m-high, 15m-wide, 4.2-million-pixel video wall, which displays real-time feeds from the motorway CCTV camera network. It allows motorway and tunnel operators to spot developing incidents, enlarge views of incidents as they occur, and study CCTV images in detail before making decisions.
Separated from the main control room by a full height glass panel is an incident management room, which serves as the location for coordinating the response to major incidents on the road network. This tour will provide you with an insight into how the control centre is transforming the management of Ireland’s roads and helping to safeguard the safety, resilience, and sustainability of Ireland’s road network.
This tour will include observation of the motorway controller and the tunnel controller. We will also provide light refreshments and an opportunity to network.
Availability:
There will be two tours available at the following times
Tuesday 16th April
09:30 – 13:15
12:45 – 16:30
Price: €25
Please Note: The maximum capacity for each of these tours is 18 people.
Shuttle buses will be provided to travel to and from the Motorway Control Centre
Supported by National Transport Authority and Dublin Bus
The Wayfinding Centre
The tour of The Wayfinding Centre will incorporate exploration of the full range of facilities including the aeroplane fuselage, airport infrastructure, and the DART train and Luas light rail carriages, both equipped with live training functionality. The tour will also include the streetscape including cycle lanes, island bus stop, and road crossings along with a double decker bus, coach, and accessible taxi all housed within the facility.
Throughout the tour we will facilitate discussions about common transport challenges and provide the opportunity to discuss potential partnerships with The Wayfinding Centre and use of the Living lab for research and innovation projects. The tour will be followed by light refreshments in the Connection Café to facilitate further discussion and networking.
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The Wayfinding Centre is an innovative centre taking a multidimensional approach to empower individuals and unlock possibilities through immersive experiences in mobility and transport, driven by the need to make transport accessible for everyone. People with reduced mobility or an access need experience practical hands-on training affording the opportunity to explore all aspects of transport in a safe and controlled environment. Transport staff, built environment professionals, designers, academics and policy makers have the opportunity to utilise real world transport modules and streetscapes to enable training in the whole of journey approach to transport accessibility, disability awareness and importantly, learn directly from people with lived experience.
The Wayfinding Centre is a space where all transport stakeholders will bring unique perspectives to collaborate, co-create solutions, co-design foundations, develop views and test theories to ultimately ensure equity and inclusion are at the forefront of any transport development agenda.
Availability:
There will be one tour available each day at the following times
Tuesday 16th April
12:45 – 16:15
Wednesday 17th April
12:45 – 16:15
Price: €25
Delegates will use Public Transport* to travel to and from The Wayfinding Centre
*Delegates will be provided with a TFI Leap Card to be used on Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin City services, Luas and Irish Rail DART and Commuter Rail within the Short Hop Zone.
Site visit to Phibsborough Depot to see the newly installed electrification infrastructure and electric buses. We will have experts from our Engineering team on-site to meet the delegates and provide a briefing.
We will then go across to our historic Broadstone Depot, which is located on the same site. We will give a tour of the depot which has been a part of Ireland’s transport infrastructure since 1850 and was redeveloped in 2021, following a significant investment of €15.2M, restoring the site to become a modern bus fleet maintenance facility for the capital of Ireland.
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Availability:
There will be one tour available each day at the following times
Tuesday 16th April
09:00 – 11:15
Price: €25
Delegates will use Public Transport* to travel to and from Phibsborough & Broadstone depots
*Delegates will be provided with a TFI Leap Card to be used on Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin City services, Luas and Irish Rail DART and Commuter Rail within the Short Hop Zone.
Commissioners of Irish Lights
The Irish Lights Technical Tour will provide a glimpse into the critical work of this maritime organisation which is safety of navigation at sea, as well as supporting wider economic activity in Ireland. Irish Lights delivers essential 24/7 safety and navigation services, which includes a 24-hour emergency response function, around the coast of Ireland (North and South), 365 days a year.
The organisation provides commercial, tourism, and heritage services to support the blue economy and is a key contributor to a range of international Maritime Safety organisations ensuring the development of harmonised safety standards to support maritime safety. Irish Lights adopts a steadfast commitment to responsible environmental and sustainability practices in its operations.
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90 percent of goods crucial to Ireland’s economy arrive by sea, which underscores the vital role played by maritime transport in sustaining Ireland’s national supply chain and economic activities. The efficiency, safety, and reliability of sea transport is paramount, and Irish Lights – supported by the Department of Transport – plays a key role in this through its marine aids to navigation network.
With its extensive network of physical and electronic aids to navigation around the island of Ireland, it regulates over 3,500 local aids to navigation, all of which serve as critical national infrastructure to support the safety of the maritime sector. Comprising buoys, beacons, lights, and AIS (automatic identification systems) all play a crucial role in delineating safe shipping routes and assisting mariners in determining navigable waters. The evolving world of maritime traffic, the increasing prevalence of developments such as offshore renewable energy, and other environmental challenges have collectively imposed new challenges to which Irish Lights has adapted.
Discover how Irish Lights is proactively adapting to these challenges, implementing innovative solutions and technologies to ensure the safety of mariners and the resilience of our maritime infrastructure.
Availability:
There will be one tour available each day at the following times
Tuesday 16th April
14:00 – 17:15
Thursday 18th April
14:00 – 17:15
Price: €25
Please Note: The maximum capacity for each of these tours is 20 people.
Delegates will use Public Transport* to travel to and from Commissioners of Irish Lights.
*Delegates will be provided with a TFI Leap Card to be used on Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin City services, Luas and Irish Rail DART and Commuter Rail within the Short Hop Zone.
Dublin City Council Traffic Control Centre
The technical tour will include an informal overview of how the centre operates on a day to day basis including a description of the overall systems employed daily including the SCATS Adaptive Traffic Management System, Automatic Fault Management System (AFMS) and DPTIM system for bus priority.
More Information
Availability:
There will be one tour available each day at the following times
Tuesday 16th April
13:15 – 16:45
Wednesday 17th April
13:15 – 16:45
Price: €25
Please Note: The maximum capacity for each of these tours is 20 people.
Shuttle buses will be provided to travel to and from the Dublin City Traffic Control Centre
Supported by National Transport Authority and Dublin Bus
Luas Depot
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The tour will include a presentation on the history of trams in Dublin, a visit to the Luas Network Management Center where all aspects of tramway operations are managed and a visit to our maintenance facilities at Red Cow.
Availability:
There will be one tour available each day at the following times
Tuesday 16th April
09:00 – 12:15
Wednesday 17th April
09:00 – 12:15
Thursday 18th April
09:00 – 12:15
Price: €25
Please Note: The maximum capacity for each of these tours is 15 people.
Delegates will depart from the RDS on a Shuttle Bus to Heuston Station where they will then use Public Transport* to travel to The Luas Light Rail depot.
*Delegates will be provided with a TFI Leap Card to be used on Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin City services, Luas and Irish Rail DART and Commuter Rail within the Short Hop Zone.
If you’ve ever wondered what is going on behind the scenes with data and connectivity in Dublin, you can join a 30-40 minute walking tour in Dublin’s Docklands. Smart Docklands, a programme co-funded by Dublin City Council and the Science Foundation Ireland research centre, CONNECT in Trinity College Dublin, is a testbed focusing on how increased connectivity and IoT deployments can improve city life.
Smart Dockland’s Innovation tour showcases a wide range of deployed innovations across the area from AR/VR experiences, digital infrastructure and sensor-based technologies. The tour highlights the programme’s engagement to date with a variety of local authority departments, citizens, academia and industry. As part of the tour you will hear about all the ongoing work deploying next generation connectivity infrastructure and about a number of pilots that have scaled from the Docklands covering waste management, water safety, community engagement and environmental monitoring.
More Information
Availability
There will be one tour available each day at the following times :
Tuesday 16th April
13:45 – 15:30
Wednesday 17th April
13:45 – 15:30
Thursday 18th April
13:45 – 15:30
Price: €25
Delegates will use Public Transport* to travel to and from The Wayfinding Centre
*Delegates will be provided with a TFI Leap Card to be used on Dublin Bus, Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin City services, Luas and Irish Rail DART and Commuter Rail within the Short Hop Zone.
Dublin Port
Dublin Port is Ireland’s largest Port and traces its history back to 1707. Since then, the Port has expanded eastwards from the Custom House to its current location at the edge of the City. Today it is a landlord port with companies competing to import and export goods from the island of Ireland to Europe and the UK.
Come and learn more about the busiest port on the Island of Ireland, the 300-year history of the Port, its Community, and Environmental programmes, and finally its plans until 2040. Delegates will be taken on board the St Brigid vessel for a tour overlooking Dublin Port and Dublin Bay, accompanied by representatives from the Dublin Port Company.
More Information
Availability
There will be one tour available each day at the following times :
Tuesday 16th April
07:40 – 11:00
Wednesday 17th April
14:10 – 17:30
Price: €25
Please note:
The boat is not wheelchair accessible, however, if passengers have poor mobility but can board with assistance, the crew will be happy to help them. There are stairs with railings leading down to the lower deck/inner cabin.
Shuttle buses will be provided to travel to and from the Dublin Port
Belfast Tour
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Delegates will be able to choose between the following two options on Friday 19th April:
Cycle Tour
Ireland is the European leader in funding Active Travel infrastructure and this trip will showcase over €160m of recent investment in Active Travel. Escorts from the Active Travel Programme Office, the Traffic Division, and the National Transport Authority will accompany the delegates. The guides will present the key infrastructural developments for cycling along the Grand Canal, the Royal Canal, and the Clontarf to City Centre project. The delegates will come away with a full appreciation of the challenges of retrofitting active travel into a built environment.
The trip will cover:
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- New traffic signalling legislation, detection and staging bespoke to the infrastructure.
- Bridge and road reconfiguration for cycling.
- Design challenges (construction beside live railway, inter-agency co-operation, geometric limitations, bridge interaction between pedestrians and cyclists).
- Planning and Environmental Issues (invasive species, protected species, future rail line use, lighting, navigation rights etc.).
- Societal engagement and urban improvement from the scheme.
- Presentation of live works on two major projects, Clontarf to City Centre, Royal Canal Phase 3, including new canal bridge.
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More Information
Please Note: The maximum capacity for each of these tours is 30 people.
Bicycles will be provided by TFI bikes, on day hire, under standard T&Cs.
High viz and helmets will be made available.
Delegates will cycle at their own risk.
Supported by National Transport Authority and Dublin Bus.
