New park-and-ride facilities at the Quick Park site at Dublin Airport, with free city-wide Rambler tickets, are to be provided by Dublin Bus this Christmas.
The park-and-ride facilities are in addition to extra gardaí, increased numbers of Nightlink buses, extra late-night trams and a record number of taxis in the city.
The measures - due to be announced on Sunday - are the main aspects of this year's Operation Freeflow, the city's annual effort to ease traffic congestion during the busiest shopping period.
The Minister of State with responsibility for Dublin traffic, Mr Ivor Callely, said yesterday that he was hopeful that the Luas's popularity with the public would encourage people to leave their cars at home or at the park-and-ride stations this Christmas.
The tram service currently runs six trams an hour but this will increase to eight in December, with some trams running in the early hours of the morning.
Motorists parking at the Quick Park site in Santry will have to pay €5 per day for parking, but drivers and passengers will receive free Rambler tickets from Dublin Bus allowing them to travel free across the city for the day.
A free shuttle bus which operates from 7a.m. to 10 p.m. at night will transfer shoppers from the car park into Parnell Square.
Those who miss the shuttle can avail of other scheduled Dublin Bus services, such as the 16A, 33, 41, 41A, 41B and 41C, on which the free Rambler cards are valid up to 11.30 p.m.
The service starts on Monday and will run until January 9th.
There is no corresponding service on the southside of the city and shoppers are being directed to existing Luas park-and-ride sites and DART car parks.
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