West Oahu Organization Supports Rail Project for Ability To ‘Improve Business Climate of Our Island’

Yes2Rail today continues our selected coverage of last Wednesday’s City Council hearing on the rail project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement. So far we’ve contrasted a generalized generational overview of the project, the “true confessions” of a rail opponent and why a college student thinks rail will attract graduates to return to the islands.

The president of the board of the West Oahu Economic Development Association added his group's support for the project in his testimony.

Jon McKenna

Our association is made up of nearly 100 businesses, community and government leaders dedicated to supporting and advocating for the economic growth of West Oahu. Our area, as you know, is the fastest-growing population of business base in the state, with the number of businesses here doubling in the past 10 years and more to come as Kapolei builds out.

For businesses, time is money, and traffic congestion adds unnecessarily to the cost of doing business. Many of us, our employees (and) our customers have to travel regularly between downtown Honolulu and Kapolei. Delays due to traffic are more often the norm rather than the exception.

The FEIS states that it will take 38 minutes to travel from East Kapolei Station to downtown. This travel reliability and consistency will benefit our area businesses and our residents.

We strongly support the city’s elevated rail plan because it will reduce traffic congestion in the future and make it easier to travel between town and West Oahu and improve the business climate of our island.