Dublin traders want a public hearing into the Dublin Metro North project, claiming that disruption costs to the city could total €2bn.
The Rail Procurement Agency has applied to An Bord Pleanála for a railway order to start the project but there is no obligation to hold a hearing.
Tom Coffey of the Dublin City Centre Business Association welcomed the concept of the Metro North but said a public hearing should still be held due to the public importance of the project.
Mr Coffey said: 'We are concerned that this project (in its current guise) may well prove unnecessarily damaging to the existing economy as well prove to be the least cost efficient means of achieving what we all agree is a necessary project.'
Mr Coffey said there are concerns about the adequacy of the Environmental Impact Assessment and that it was unfair that the public sector were given extra time to study its 3,000-page report while the private sector was not.
An RPA spokesman said it was expecting a public hearing to be held around February 2009.
