Iarnród Éireann has "actively discouraged passenger and freight traffic across much of its network", it has been claimed.
The current threat of closure to a number of lines can be attributed largely to defective business strategies, the editor of an Irish railway newsletter has claimed. In a hard-hitting statement, Mr Hassard Stacpoole, editor of the Internet newsletter Irish Railway News, maintains under-utilisation of the threatened lines has actually contributed to the problem.
Mr Stacpoole disputes the company's assertion that the Limerick-Ballybrophy and Limerick Junction-Waterford-Rosslare Strand lines are not viable from an economic point of view.
On both lines, passenger numbers have dropped considerably in recent years. Indeed, some trains carry fewer than 50 people and it is not uncommon for no passengers to board or disembark at some of the smaller stations.
However, Mr Stacpoole claims that the services which are being provided are totally inadequate and no serious attempt has been made to try and lure people away from road transports and on to the railways.
During the summer, there were just two daily passenger trains in each direction linking Waterford and Limerick, two of Ireland's biggest cities. With minimal investment over the past two decades, this line is frequently traversed by 40-year-old locomotives hauling carriages of a similar age.
The current timetable has just six trains a week in each direction - there is none on Sundays - and the average speed is just 24 m.p.h., due partly to a 63-minute wait at Limerick Junction for a connection.
"The passenger appeal of this service is zero," Mr Stacpoole writes. "None of the services are timed to facilitate business users, commuters, shoppers or students."
He also highlights the fact that the Waterford-Limerick service has poor connections. Better timetabling, he says, could allow a proper link for towns such as Clonmel with the Dublin-Waterford service.
Regarding the threatened Limerick-Ballybrophy line, Mr Stacpoole notes that parts of the line have a speed restriction of 25 m.p.h. and that the changes to the track lay-out at Ballybrophy have hindered operations.
"Instead of closing the line, badly needed new morning and evening services should be provided from Nenagh and Roscrea to Dublin via Portlaoise, avoiding the existing station at Ballybrophy," he writes. He also believes that a Nenagh-Limerick commuter route should be examined.
"Railways carry extraordinarily high fixed costs. This means that intensive utilisation is essential to their financial success. Unfortunately, Iarnród Éireann has actively discouraged passenger and freight traffic across much of its network. Economic failure is guaranteed by this strategy."
On the question of freight traffic, he has called on the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to provide tax breaks to encourage companies to switch from road to rail. This is done in several other European Union states.
"We believe the way forward for the Irish railway network is to develop and pursue a strategy of increasing intensification of operations across the entire existing network.
"Opportunities to develop new passenger and freight traffic are being spurned in favour of negative and destructive strategies on a large part of the network," he concludes.