Instant traffic news for drivers in a jam

As radio stations go, it's not the most exciting line-up: road accident reports, traffic-jam warnings and updates on parking spaces, all delivered by a computer-generated repeat-messaging programme.

However, Dublin Corporation and the Garda Siochana are hoping Travel 106.8 FM will get enough of a following from the capital's stressed-out motorists to make it a permanent fixture on the airwaves.

They are to announce the station next week and broadcasting will begin on Monday, May 10th.

Initially, it will operate on a two-month pilot basis, having received four 14-day temporary licences from the Independent Radio and Television Commission, one for each Dublin local authority.

It is expected, however, that the corporation and the Garda will apply for a permanent licence in June, when the IRTC is due to consider granting licences to up to five new Dublin stations.

A spokesman for the IRTC warned that there was no guarantee that the official station would become a longer-term project. "An evaluation will be done with a view to deciding whether it would continue," he said.

There will be no advertising and no presenter on the station. Rather, 15-minute segments of information will be broadcast using a pre-recorded voice. Thanks to new technology, the corporation will be able to update the reports almost instantly and thereby avoid broadcasting out-of-date information.

The initiative coincides with the completion of a new fibre-optic communications link between the traffic control centres of the corporation and the Garda at Wood Quay and Harcourt Square respectively. The primary function of the link is to allow gardai to access the corporation's CCTV cameras.

Although it challenges the AA's traffic report monopoly, the station was welcomed by the motoring body's public affairs manager, Mr Conor Faughnan. "Anything that is going to put information in the public domain has got to be to the good. Best of luck to them," he said.

Sceptics, however, are asking whether repetitive messages on such topics as the number of parking spaces available in the Ilac Centre are not the sort of thing weary motorists will want to avoid rather than embrace.