A €10m extension to the Red Cow Depot was required to provide an appropriate Production Area for the tram conversions and provide a Maintenance Area to house the bigger size vehicles.
Two Luas depots are currently in operation located at the Red Cow and Sandyford. Depots provide storage and maintenance facilities for Luas trams and are used for the day to day maintenance, cleaning and upgrading of trams. The extended Red Cow depot was used throughout the successful upgrade the Red Line tram fleet from 30 metre trams to 40 metre trams as part of the RPA Capacity Enhancement 1 (CE1)project. Vehicle repair, maintenance and cleaning are carried out by Alstom under contract with the RPA.
Apart from the two-track maintenance lane, building extension and the provision of seven new tram stabling roads some other alterations were required to the Red Cow depot to facilitate both the work required to extend the 30m trams and to maintain and house the new 40m trams. For example the pit lanes were lengthened and additional maintenance equipment was put in place.