After a year of protracted industrial disputes and disruption at Iarnrod Eireann, the immediate future is still bleak with yet another drivers' dispute looming. This time it is in relation to proposed increases in the suburban services on the Maynooth line, where 20 railcars are currently being tested in an attempt to improve services.
According to Iarnrod Eireann "rumblings" have been received from the drivers in relation to this. Some have, apparently, told the company that these services are not covered by last year's marathon agreement on pay and conditions.
But for the capital's suburban rail commuters it hardly matters what the latest dispute will be about. Following the series of disruptions throughout the year December's landslide at Killiney, which severed DART services between Dalkey and Greystones, must have given commuters the impression that even God was against them.
While the Government strategy is alternately to tempt and coerce private car drivers to use public transport, last year 230,840 new cars were purchased in the Republic, more than 100,000 of them registered in Dublin.
At the same time capacity constraints, signalling restrictions, platforms that are too short to accommodate longer trains, the sharing of track with mainline trains, overcrowding, and the lack of trains have all conspired to create a lack of confidence in this form of public transport.
And a lack of confidence in public transport means car drivers remaining in their cars.
One of the major problems with the railway is that on the central corridor between Pearse and Connolly stations just 12 trains per hour in each direction can get through. While this might allow a DART train every five minutes, the reality is that the track is shared with mainline and outer suburban services to the south and north, leading to large gaps in the timetable.
Overcrowding on the DART is well known, with all seats being filled when the train starts at either Bray, Greystones, Malahide or Howth, and the aisles and doorways filling up rapidly as the journey progresses. At midway stops such as Dun Laoghaire, passengers must force themselves onto trains against a human overspill which occurs when the doors open. Considerable safety questions have arisen as a result of this.
A plan to lengthen peak-hour trains from six cars per train to eight has been held up because the platform at Tara Street is too short to accommodate eight cars.
The problem is compounded by the phenomenal growth of the greater Dublin region in recent years. Development plans are, in line with government strategy, drawn up with reference to the availability of public transport.
In practice, this has meant zoning for greater population density along suburban lines in such places as Maynooth and Wicklow. However, the shortage of trains and capacity constraints mean that few trains serve the outer suburban areas, again leading to crowded conditions.
In an attempt to reduce overspill to regional services, Iarnrod Eireann has decreed that inter-city services will no longer stop at suburban stations in the Dublin area.
Add to that list of disincentives to use the train the numerous industrial disputes and even acts of God, and it is obvious why motorists are remaining in their cars. And while the Government has short-, medium- and long-term plans to ease the situation, the only real hope for the car commuter is that the teachers may themselves go out on strike.