The Monasterevin Railway Action Group, which has been attempting to have its local railway station reopened, has had the platform plucked from under its campaign.
Despite protests, Iarnrod Eireann, which operates inter-city services, took away the station's main platform earlier this year. But this has not deterred the group from pressing ahead with its plans to force the opening.
"We made all kinds of protests to the company, which seems determined to keep the station closed, but they would not listen," said Mr Neddy O'Rourke, chairman of the action group.
"I got on to the headquarters in Dublin and they told me the removal of the platform was necessary to allow a maintenance machine to operate," he said.
"When I asked him how this machine operated in other stations where the platforms still exist, he gave me a very vague reply," he said.
Despite the setback, the action group commissioned a survey of the transport needs of the town with its population of 2,225 citizens. According to Mr Paul Keating, of the Action South Kildare development organisation, the survey, carried out during July, August and September, made a compelling argument for the reopening of the station.
There were about 292 city-bound commuters travelling daily from Monasterevin.
"Of those we surveyed, 95 per cent of them would use the railway station if it were reopened," he said.
Mr Paddy Whelan, spokesman for the group, said residents from the town and surrounding areas had to drive to Portlaoise, Portarlington or Kildare to get the train to Dublin.
"They also get the Arrow service from Newbridge, but the problem is that the car-parking facilities at Newbridge and Kildare are very poor indeed," he said. "We have the facilities here, and if the station is reopened it will cater for those who already use the trains and bring more custom to the railway company."
Taking a conservative estimate from the population at large, Mr Keating said it was anticipated that there would be a total of 315 daily train-users from the current population.
Mr O'Rourke said the survey found that of the 24 businesses surveyed in the town, 112 people travelled every day to work in Monasterevin who could use the reopened station.
The support given by the Moore Abbey centre had given the campaign a major boost. The centre caters for clients with disabilities from all over the State.
"The Moore Abbey people tell us that if the station was in operation, they believe 112 staff and clients would use the service on a regular basis," he said.
Mr Keating said local business people had estimated that a minimum of 16 jobs would be created if the station opened its doors again.
"The way people in this town see it is that the town is losing business because it has no train service. Any industry needs a good transport system to back it up," said Mr O'Rourke.
He said residents were astonished at the railway company's attitude to calls to open the station, and the removal of the platform was unbelievable.
"In a letter to a local TD, the company said its research had shown that the demand for the service would not justify the cost of reopening the station," said Mr O'Rourke.
"The problem is that we know they have done very little research on the subject at all.
"There was an attempt to ask people travelling to Portarlington and Portlaoise whether they would like the station reopened, but that kind of research, carried out on a railway platform in Dublin, is of little or no use," he said.
"We have a scientific survey carried out in the area itself which has been conservatively drafted, and that is a real survey which shows the level of demand there is here," said Mr Keating.
Mr Whelan said that on one occasion Iarnrod Eireann had said the station should not be opened until a new sewerage system was supplied which would allow for the town's expansion and the generation of more traffic.
He said this seemed a strange piece of logic, but a sewerage system was being put in place, and the argument for keeping the station shut was no longer valid.
The survey will be officially presented in January, and the action committee has plans to mark the anniversary of the station's closure, January 29th, 1976, with a protest.
They would not specify what form that might take, but indicated it might involve stopping trains at the station with no platform.