Commuter chaos over the next few days will have much to do with bad planning, which has allowed Dublin's suburban sprawl to spread as far as 50 miles outside the city, according to the Government's planning advisers.
Because of Dublin's continuing low-density status and an enthusiasm to rezone land in surrounding counties, suburban-type developments are being built as far away as Mullingar, Tullamore and Portlaoise. Similar development is evident even in Gorey in north Co Wexford and in southern parts of Co Louth.
Planning experts and economists say the vulnerability of such a strategy became apparent yesterday as thousands of commuters on mainline routes suffered delays, overcrowded trains or traffic snarls.
Only three out of eight services operated from Dublin to Cork, with only two out of seven in the opposite direction, leaving commuters in Newbridge, Kildare and Laois in difficulty. The Arrow service was also affected. Commuters on the Drogheda-Dundalk line suffered heavily as many services were cancelled, and Irish Rail announced further disruption was expected.
The Galway to Dublin line was less severely hit, with five out of six services travelling east and four out of six westbound services working. The Waterford to Dublin line saw three out of five services run in both directions. The Dublin to Rosslare line had all services running.
According to Mr Jim Walsh, professor of geography at the National University of Maynooth, the suburban sprawl makes people more reliant on public transport - with obvious implications for the quality of that transport.
Mr Walsh, a member of the Government's Advisory Group on National Spatial Strategy, said decisions should have been taken 20 years ago to avoid the situation where commuters live in places so far from their jobs that they need to spend several hours a day travelling. New arrangements need to be hammered out as the train-drivers' dispute makes it clear that planning decisions make the economy increasingly vulnerable, he said.
The train-drivers' dispute is the latest example of the "completely ridiculous" situation which has been allowed to develop, according to economist Mr Colm McCarthy, of DKM Economic Consultants. DKM has produced a number of reports for the Government, including the Review of Transport Infrastructure Investment Needs.
Mr McCarthy points out that suburban-style housing currently being built in Gorey, Co Wexford, is advertised as being only 1 1/2 hours from Dublin.
"This is 57 miles from Dublin. The M25 ring-route around London encompasses a population of eight million people and it is just 25 miles from the centre of London," he said.
Mr McCarthy also instanced Los Angeles in California which is notorious for its reliance on car commuting and the resultant traffic snarls and air pollution. "Los Angeles is 40 miles long, top to bottom," he pointed out.
Mr McCarthy said Dublin city's population declined steadily between 1971 and 1991 - at a greater rate than the depopulation of Co Leitrim - and has only stabilised since 1996. While the centre of Dublin has seen some increased density since then, much of the suburban housing built 40 years ago is suffering from an "empty nest" syndrome as adult children leave.
Instead of Dublin's population remaining in the city as generations progressed, they moved further out. "The truth is that Dublin is one of the lowest-density cities anywhere in the world and the constant development farther and farther out cannot be sustained," said Mr McCarthy.
There are still people farming inside Dublin's M50, while those living in outlying counties are spending several hours a day in a car.
"There is enough land within the Dublin area - within 10 miles of the centre of Dublin - to provide the number of dwellings which we need," he said.
Yesterday's strike also created difficulties for transport organisations which have been encouraging commuters to use public transport.
According to Mr Conor Faughnan, of the AA, the difficulties encountered sent the worst possible messages to commuters. "The virtue of public transport should be reliability; this certainly is a setback."
Mr Faughnan said everyone involved in transport, including the AA, was trying to promote the use of public transport for commuters in Dublin. Freeing up roadspace and taking out unnecessary commuting traffic was central, he explained.