Firstly, I will be biased here.
This question is brought up as you say regularly and is rightly questioned. If we didn't question current ways, we couldn't improve. There is a future for it for sure, it won't be world beating and it will be a constant uphill struggle like it has been for the last ~42 years. But that is expected. The A6 matter is an interesting one for a few reasons. It's not going to drastically change travel time in a way that will improve quality of life to justify removing Eglinton purely on that basis. Secondly, It's a two way road, if a more appropriate service was on offer at Eglinton for particular passengers then who's to say they won't head up this way? I know that anecdotally, if an appropriate service is on offer at Eglinton, it will be used over going to Belfast without a doubt, the A6 won't change this as CoDA won't be moving farther away from it's own catchment, it will just be that BFS/BHD will be all of 10 minutes closer. A recent business study was carried out to assess the viability of the burden on local ratepayers and it was determined that this must change. Various avenues are to be explored, some slightly optimistic in my eyes but why right them off? We simply won't know the negotiations behind the scenes. I don't see evidence of reduced political support. There is always the same councillors who are continually against the facility and this hasn't and simply won't change, support hasn't grown either however it has to be said. It'll always be a divisive issue which will be constantly under review and rightly so.
As I said in my previous post, what is currently present is a base to build upon with extra frequencies and altered times in the short term. One such small change would be a later GLA service on a Friday however this is of course unlikely as you're competing against BHD/SYY/SOU for LM's attention on that one, providing they would insist that it would be served by an ER4. I think a good way to look at this is being back to square one. There is nothing to patch up now and what is currently offered is the smallest CoDA will ever contract to again in regards to capacity. This can only mean future announcements over the next year or two (if there is to be any of course) can only be seen in a good light from the local ratepayers, many of whom are disgruntled at the subvention. At present LPL is performing well by the looks of things, maintaining its frequency this coming winter and with a number services in the first week or service either being full or in the upper fare bands already. STN is going to 14x weekly on a regular basis for the first time since the PSO's inception back in 2017 and then to 15x weekly come July. I raised questions over LM's suitability operating to other cities in the UK besides London after the poor performance on MAN, especially given the price sensitive market we are. but I'm beginning to change this. A DUB PSO as mentioned in the "New Decade New Approach" agreement is to be explored, this was also mentioned in the recent business case I mentioned earlier and some form of service to BHX would undoubtedly be the next thing to look at over the next couple of seasons. Who, what, when and how? Who knows but it will be the next step domestically. All this whilst working to establish a usable international range much like what has operated in the past could herald a change in the coming years. A Head of Business Development has now been appointed, something I can't remember being a dedicated post in the previous 10 years under RCA's management so potentially a sign of meaningful intent?
Will it ever break even? Probably not but in a few years with developments I'm hopeful we could maybe look at the issue and asses that yes, what we have now is value for money and a undeniably important piece of infrastructure to the region and its population.