This Blog’s First Headline: ‘Rail Transit Must Finally become a Reality for Honolulu,’ and 15 Years Later, Today It Does!

Honolulu Skyline System at its Launch

Click for 19-minute video of Skyline in operation.

Fifteen years is an eternity in Internet time, so it's remarkable that Yes2Rail's first post 15 years ago today had a website's URL link for HART -- the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation -- that still works!

Honolulu's Skyline elevated rail opens for public use this afternoon to deliver what was suggested in that first post -- a system "that will restore mobility to a population that has none in the traffic-choked 20 miles between west Oahu and downtown Honolulu."

Though the system's time line and costs have changed, I'm sticking with my forever prediction: Honolulu elevated rail will be an immediate success for those who choose to ride and thereby completely avoid traffic congestion on the H-1 and surface roads between Kapolei and town. 

That decades-old vision becomes a reality today.

On the Eve of Honolulu Skyway’s Launch and Culmination of Decades of Planning, Let’s Thank Everybody Who Has Brought Us to this Extraordinary Moment

Thousands of people have helped achieve grade-separated traffic-free commuting that will become a reality with the start of Skyway’s inaugural service Friday afternoon. 

 

Obvious among them are those who’ve worked locally to move the project along in the past decade-plus. But many non-local people helped shape the vision that will become a reality on June 30.

 

Their number includes even the international community of employees of the French, Japanese, Canadian, and American firms that submitted proposals to build Mayor Frank Fasi’s plan in 1991. Even though that project ultimately wasn't executed, their efforts contributed to more thinking and planning that proved valuable in later years.

 

Politicians also deserve plaudits for their commitment to Honolulu rail – from members of Honolulu’s City Council who authorized local funding of the project, to State legislators who thought beyond their districts’ boundaries and gave their approval to help Oahu residents whose lives are degraded by grinding traffic congestion. And let's not forget Federal government employees who were critical to moving the project forward along the way.

 

Four successive Honolulu mayors supported rail, starting with Mufi Hannemann, who resurrected the project after his 2004 election, and continuing through the administrations of Peter Carlyle, Kirk Caldwell, and now Rick Blangiardi. Each of them defeated candidates who actively fought against this day ever happening.

 

Public Opinion

 

Perhaps most deserving of our thanks are the citizens of Oahu whose support for rail was repeatedly revealed in polls conducted by Hawaii firms that sampled views on rail of all citizens, not just voters. 

 

I’ve repeatedly criticized Civil Beat and, at times, the daily newspaper and its television partner for using voter-only polls to sample public opinion on rail. That is not a legitimate practice; public infrastructure projects serve the entire public, including approximately half of the population that chooses not to vote – a cohort more likely to use public transit than voters (you can look it up).

 

I personally thank Mufi Hannemann for asking me to join the project’s Public Involvement Team in 2007. He took note of my involvement with French firm Matra Transport, which bid on Mayor Fasi’s project, and my continuing efforts over the next dozen years or so to push back at the anti-railers' media presence. For examples of that push-back, go here, here, here, and here.

 

Now that Honolulu elevated rail has become a reality, Yes2Rail transitions to a less argumentative voice – but not without one last recollection of the August 2011 salvo from four highly visible anti-rail campaigners. 

 

They were attempting to lead the public away from the only transportation mode that, beginning Friday, will offer total relief from traffic congestion in Oahu’s southern corridor between Kapolei and eventually urban Honolulu.  

 

We called the anti-rail op-ed piece on Sunday August 21, 2011 a Hail Mary pass tossed into the rail debate out of desperation by the four critics we dubbed the “Gang of Four.” 

 

We resurrect their piece only to publicize our push-back arguments – to maybe use again in case a new gang steps forward to blow more smoke.

Counting Down to Skyline’s Launch on Friday: Yes2Rail Recalls the Push for At-Grade Transit and how Safety Issues Clearly Favored an Elevated System

Opponents of Honolulu's proposed transit project used a variety of tactics over the years in their attempts to block it. One was an ongoing campaign to build the rail line at ground level, where trains would interact with cars, buses, trucks, and pedestrians. 

Yes2Rail took pains to point out the inherent danger of at-grade transit, and the photos in the blog’s right-hand column showed what can go wrong when vehicles occupy the same space as at-grade transit. 

Click on these headlines to read the posts:

National Transit Leader Calls Honolulu Rail Plan 'Gold Standard' of Transit, Says Elevated Rail is Safer, More Reliable and More Attractive To Ride

LA Residents Fighting for Grade-Separated Transit; At-Grade Rail Unsafe for Kids, Elderly, All

AIA Capitol Hearing Skirts At-Grade Safety Issue; Chapter's Vision Won't Do What Honolulu Needs

AIA Once Again Misrepresents and Ignores Higher Danger to Street Traffic Posed by At-Grade Transit

3 'Pedestrian Crosswalk' Deaths Already in 2010; AIA Still Pushes for At-Grade Train in Chinatown

At-Grade's Drawbacks Can't Be Airbrushed Away

Human Factor Causes another At-Grade Crash; Bus Runs Light, Smashes into Houston Train; 12 Sent to Hospitals, Rail Service Halted for Hours

One City's Experience with At-Grade Rail Safety: Salt Lake City's Search for Answers to At-Grade Crashes Deserves More than a Passing Glance; Bicyclist Dies There Today in Yet Another Incident

And to think Yes2Rail’s critics once said the blog's content wasn’t worth the expense. For political expediency, they attacked Honolulu rail's Public Involvement Team, the entity with the least firepower to fight back. (I'm talking to you, Tulsi Gabbard.)

 

We could continue linking Yes2Rail posts on elevated rail’s safety, but let’s leave the last several words to Wayne Yoshioka, former director of the City’s Transportation Services Department, in discussing elevated versus at-grade safety:

“Let’s go back logically and look at this. You’re elevated. You’re totally separated from the roadway. You’re in a protected environment and completely separated out…. What cars are flying at that level above the ground? And what people are flying through the air at that level above the ground? As opposed to an at-grade transit that’s crossing active streets with active vehicles turning in front of the train, with pedestrians crossing in front of the train. That (comparison) doesn’t seem to make logical sense to me."

Thankfully, safety was a critical consideration in building Honolulu's elevated Skyline. Our description of the project has always been "fast, frequent, reliable, and safe." Go forth, Honolulu, and ride safely.

A Honolulu Rail Benefit that’s Rarely Mentioned: Riders Will Know Exactly when They’ll Arrive at Their Destination

When Honolulu’s Skyline goes into service on June 30, it will introduce a revolutionary shift in how we think about personal travel.

You’ll know when you step onto the train exactly when you’ll get off at your destination. A timetable will spell it out precisely.

 

Grade-separated transit – like Honolulu’s elevated rail – is the only mode that guarantees an arrival time at your destination. That's unknowable when you drive or take TheBus. We've all had our plans thrown off by accidents and traffic jams. 

Skyline riders will enjoy congestion-free travel. That's revolutionary!

Honolulu Elevated Rail System's Launch on June 30 Will Deliver on Citizens’ Demand for a Traffic-Free Travel Option along Oahu’s Southern Corridor; Don’t Let the Media Fool You into Thinking the Public Doesn’t Want It

If Honolulu rail’s opening day comes off as advertised two weeks from today – after decades of delay, it’s an “if” worth considering – it will be one of Hawaii’s most momentous public events since World War II.

That’s a personal opinion, of course, but I think rail’s launch easily ranks with other milestones in the past eight decades that deserve inclusion in a short list. Statehood in 1959 surely is one, and so, too, is the maiden voyage of the Hokulea in 1975, an iconic representation of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance.

 

Volcanologists might include the start of Kilauea’s volcanic eruption in January 1983 that continues virtually uninterrupted to this day. And don’t forget the University of Hawaii football team’s undefeated 2007 season and invitation to the Sugar Bowl.

 

My Top Five list includes construction and launch of Hawaii’s most expensive and grandest civil engineering project ever – Honolulu elevated rail, which will begin operations at 2 p.m. on June 30. The public can enjoy free rides on the line and on the City’s TheBus system through the first weekend in July until the last train’s runs on July 4.

 

Decades of Planning

 

“This is the last chance we have to build a rail system in our lifetime,” wrote Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann in a 2005 letter to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. “If we fail this time, unlike 1992, it will not be because of lack of effort on the part of the city.”

 

Honolulu did not fail. Despite repeated legal challenges and an anti-rail public relations campaign that flourished a dozen years ago (see this blog’s August 2011 posts), rail’s backers persevered despite that campaign and earlier headwinds.

 

Mayor Frank Fasi had begun planning in the 1970s for a mass transit alternative to driving between town and Oahu’s anticipated “Second City” on the ewa plain. The southwest corner of Oahu was still covered in sugarcane fields then, but it was obvious to planners that surface roads and the new H-1 freeway would eventually become traffic-clogged once thousands of homes replaced all that agriculture. 

 

Fasi’s Honolulu Area Rapid Transit planning ended with his re-election defeat in 1980, but he was back in Honolulu Hale four years later with a new and improved system that would have linked Kapolei with the University of Hawaii. 

 

The early1990s effort was propelled by Fasi’s famously energetic get-it-done personality, and at the invitation of the French government, he visited Lille, France to inspect the elevated line there. Matra Transport, headquartered at the time just outside Paris, had built the Lille system and others around the world and was one of five companies that bid on Honolulu’s project. (As a media consultant for Matra's Honolulu bid, I travelled with the Fasi party and took the photos displayed here. Our flight from New York to Paris in 3.5 hours aboard an Air France Concorde is on my personal Top Five list.)

 

Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi visited Lille, France in 1991 to experience Matra Transport's 

elevated and automated transit system. John Marino, Matra's North American

marketing executive and my client, is center right in gray coat holding a briefcase.

When Honolulu awarded the contract to another bidder during Halloween week,

Matra sponsored the full-page ad, below, in both Honolulu newspapers.

Matra played hardball with a smile. The ad prompted more than a few chuckles in Honolulu Hale. Matra ran the ad just that one time, which made Warner Brothers happy.

Fasi’s updated transit vision fell one vote short in the City Council in 1992, and for the next decade, supporters and opponents argued the pros and cons of the transit line in opinion pieces and letters in the two daily Honolulu newspapers. 

 

Public Support for Rail

 

Mufi Hannemann’s victory in the 2004 mayoral race was a turning point in building the system that will go public in two weeks. Hannemann wrote his letter in response to the obvious transit need on Oahu, and it’s important to recognize that Oahu residents consistently supported rail over the years – notwithstanding what you might read in the media.

 

Less than one year ago (July 11, 2022), Civil Beat's report on the results of a Civil Beat/Hawaii News Now poll said this:

 

After a decade of rail drama including years of delays and colossal cost overruns, public opinion on rail hasn’t changed much: Voters today are just as sour on the project as when the entire ordeal began, according to the new poll data (emphasis added).

 

That second statement is demonstrably not true. Civil Beat likes to use “voters only” polls, which are good for assessing how politicians are faring in an election but not for determining public opinion among all residents, voters and non-voters alike.  Civil Beat sampled only voters in 2022 and compared results with earlier voters-only polls. 

 

Soliciting opinion on rail just among voters can't possibly reflect what the public at large believes, thinks, or wants. Even retired UH political scientist Neal Milner, a frequent Civil Beat contributor, agrees. 

 

Ignored by Civil Beat in its analysis were the polls taken by reputable Honolulu-based polling firms in the project's early years that reported MAJORITY support for rail. I've made it easy to access those polling results by posting them on Yes2Rail's Aggregation Page. (The link is also in the red paragraph to the right.)

 

Scroll halfway down that page to this heading:

Public Opinion - Three scientific opinion polls have been conducted by local respected firms QMark and OmniTrak in the past three years to probe the public's views on rail.

 

Here are a few headings from that Aggregation Page (with links to articles) :

-- 2011 Opinion Survey Finds 57% Support Rail Project

-- Every Council District Registered Majority (Rail) Support

-- Rail's Majority Grows When Economy Is the Issue

-- 2009 Poll: Behind the Numbers -- Solid Support

-- 2008: A Second Poll Shows Strong Support for Rail

 

So bring on elevated Honolulu rail. Traffic-avoidance commuting finally will be a reality starting in July, a benefit drivers will enjoy during all the decades of growth ahead. 

 

Yes2Rail isn’t ignoring the project’s significant cost escalation in the past 30 years. Frank Fasi’s project could have been built for about $3.7 billion – at least $7 billion less than the current project. But this blog never did vouch for the financial side of Honolulu rail – just its practicality as a preferred way to move people through the city.

 

By implementing rail, Honolulu will have restored mobility to its citizens in the heavily traveled southern corridor with grade-separated transit, which is what major cities around the world have done. The project’s other main goals have never changed and are likely to be achieved as well.

 

Enjoy the ride, Honolulu!