Dublin's DART service has been one of the State's few successful public transport projects since it started operating nearly 20 years ago.
But despite its popularity, successive governments showed little inclination to invest in it until quite recently. The extensions to Malahide and Greystones were welcome, as was the provision of new rolling stock, but it is only now that a major upgrade costing €176 million is getting under way. What caused most surprise, however, was the revelation that extensive closures will have to be implemented from this weekend so that the work involved can be carried out.
Altogether, 90,000 passengers will be affected, albeit not all at the same time. And while it must be true that much of the work involved could be completed without major disruption to the service, the fact that overhead power lines also need to be overhauled meant that sections of the line were bound to become inoperable.
Iarnród Éireann was faced with a number of options, most of them unpalatable. It could have carried out all the work in nine months, but only by closing down DART for the entire duration - on weekdays as well as weekends. Clearly, that would have led to unparalleled traffic chaos of the sort experienced during previous disruptions, so it opted instead for weekend closures with a view to minimising inconvenience to the travelling public.
But to announce the first of these closures at four days' notice does not indicate that maintaining good public relations is one of the State-run company's priorities; indeed, it turned good news into bad news as well as showing a certain degree of contempt for fare-paying passengers.
That it should coincide with the derailment of a goods train on the viaduct at Cahir, Co Tipperary, only served to demonstrate yet again the inherent defects in our railway network. Fortunately, nobody was injured or killed in the Cahir accident, but there can be little doubt that it happened as a result of persistent under-investment, going back many years, in the line linking Limerick Junction with Rosslare Harbour.
The freight it carried, mainly cement and beer kegs, will now have to find its way by road, adding to traffic congestion and pollution. But there should be no question of abandoning this under-utilised line which should be of some value in achieving the elusive goal of more balanced regional development.
Wider issues are raised by the latest developments - concerning not merely our ability to manage the inherited legacy of Ireland's railways, but also the planning of major infrastructure projects. Visitors to Dublin would be forgiven for thinking that the city has been turned into a building site, from the Port Tunnel works on the M1 to the Luas lines in the city centre. Yes, of course, there is no gain without pain. But a greater effort to fully inform the public well in advance about the likely impacts would surely help to dissipate pervasive cynicism about how State agencies conduct themselves.