A further delay to the Dublin MetroLink is likely because of the volume of submissions received about the project.
Travel Extra Editor Eoghan Corry said he still believes the MetroLink is "a long, long time away."
A planning decision was delayed last month after it was revealed An Bord Pleanála still had not got an inspector's report.
MetroLink consists of a new fully segregated railway, most of which will be underground, between the Swords and Charlemont areas of the capital.
The route for Dublin MetroLink. Image: metrolink.ieThe route will also serve Dublin Airport - the first rail link to the country's largest airport - as well as major educational campuses.
Eoghan told The Hard Shoulder it seems to be pushed back yet again.
"What they're doing at the moment in gathering up a lot of submissions about the route, about where the stations should be, what temporary land should be bought while it's being built," he said.
"They say the volume of the submissions is one of the reasons that it's being pushed back.
"We were expecting some sort of release of planning in the coming weeks, but it does look like it's going to be pushed back three or four months.
"You can add time on to that three or four months".
Eoghan said it comes back to a 'logjam' in An Bord Pleanála.
"They're straining under the pressure of the oversight of all the other planning things that they're doing at the moment," he said.
An artist's impression of the Tara Street MetroLink station. Image: metrolink.ieEoghan said this does not bode well if the first steps of the project are delayed like this.
"The issue really is not the three or four months... it's a big infrastructure project, we haven't done very many of these since the global financial recession," he said.
"If the smallest, the first little baby step of it is running into this level of problem, it does augur badly for what's ahead.
"There's going to be a big wind of debate about the MetroLink."
Dublin Airport
Eoghan said the MetroLink is really being designed to cater for Dublin Airport.
"The Dublin Airport station is sort of seen as the major point on it, alongside O'Connell Street and on Stephen's Green," he said.
"For those linteners with longer memories they'll remember the old Metro North project, which I was at the launch of.
"We were told it would all be delivered in 2012 - it's a reimagining of that project which never happened in the first place," he added.
Eoghan said other plans could ultimately be curtailed if there are further delays to the MetroLink.
Construction on MetroLink had been due to start in 2025 with completion estimated for the early 2030s.
