A Lunchtime Live caller thinks that increased commute times may be connected to companies requiring their staff to return to working in office settings after moving away during the pandemic
17:49, 10 Nov 2025Updated 17:49, 10 Nov 2025
Heuston railway station in downtown Dublin the capital of Ireland.
The busy morning and evening traffic rush has always been the worst time to be stuck commuting – but one doctor says the time it takes her to get to and from work has increased recently.
Dr Jessica Groenewald began commuting into Dublin when she moved out to Athy, Co Kildare two years ago. She says that her commute has increased from around one hour and 15 minutes to two hours.
Dr Groenewald thinks that it may be connected to companies requiring their staff to return to working in office settings, as many people who moved away from the busy city centres and city zones during the pandemic are now having to commute longer distances to return to in-office working. As a doctor, Dr Groenewald never works from home, so she has seen the commute every day over the years.
“I think for many people working in jobs where, perhaps during the pandemic, they working remotely a lot of the time, I think a lot of companies are making people working more days in the office,” she said.
“So, potentially, there’s more cars on the road. I think a lot of people moved out of the city and bought houses in the country during the pandemic and are now having to commute in.”
Dr Groenewald says her commute is impacting her quality of life. She told Lunchtime Live that is is taking away precious time from her young family.
“At the beginning of last year, it was taking about an hour and 15 minutes to get into Dublin at the time I leave in the morning – just after six,” she said. “Now it’s taking just close to two hours to get in every single day.
She spends “three and a half to four hours” every day to get to and from work. She said: “I travel to Dublin every day for work, and the commute really adds up over time.
“I’ve got a two year old child and another one on the way. I leave before she wakes up in the morning and some days I… walk in the door at 7.30 just in time to put her to bed. It’s getting to the point where it’s not really sustainable anymore to be honest.”
Currently, Dr Groenewald drives her car to the train station in Athy to catch the very first train, which leaves at 6.41am and arrives in Heuston Station in Dublin one hour later. “For people like myself who start work at eight or earlier, it’s really not an option,” she said. “Unless you work within a very short walk of Heuston Station, you’re not going to make it there by eight.
“So, I think that also contributes to the traffic from Athy because trains are so infrequent.”
Labour TD for South Kildare Mark Wall also highlighted the issues for commuters to Dublin. He said: “This is about quality of life.
“I’ve been inundated with people with stories like what Jessica has said. Basically the M7 and particularly the N7 has become a car park, and unfortunately we’ve had another incident this morning and people were delayed to getting into work.
“One of the solutions that I’ve looked at is putting on a permanent recovery service during rush hour. So I believe the TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland) should actually have that permanent recovery service to get that accident to the side of the road, to get the car off the road, to allow the traffic to flow again. I just don’t understand why that’s not there at the moment.”
Explaining how that would work, he said: “You have a phone number that you can actually ring for recovery services, and they’re actually on standby. They’re located very close to the road during those rush hour traffic.
“Unfortunately what I’m seeing at the moment – and I travel that road regularly – is that people are ringing their own recovery service and it is taking time obviously for them to get there which is adding to delays.”
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