Mayor Schedules ‘State of the Rail’ Address

As Honolulu’s rail transit project picks up speed and momentum, Mayor Mufi Hannemann has scheduled a “State of the Rail” address to update the public on its progress.

“The Honolulu Rail Transit Project is one of the most significant infrastructure projects in City history and will provide jobs and a boost to the state’s economy,” Hannemann said. “We have achieved several milestones recently, such as entering Preliminary Engineering and awarding the first construction contract.

“Rail transit is becoming a reality, and many more activities will occur soon. My administration is committed to keep the public informed about the Project’s progress, and now is an excellent time to let the public know what to expect in the coming months.”

Hannemann’s address will be given from 1:30-2 pm tomorrow (10/29) at Mission Memorial Auditorium on the Civic Center campus. It will be televised from 6:30 to 7 pm on KGMB-9 and KHNL-8; a rebroadcast is scheduled for 9:30 pm Friday on KFVE-5.

Council Votes Keep Honolulu Rail on Track

If we had a sound capability on Yes2Rail, we’d plug in the pleasing sound of a rail car closing its doors and quietly accelerating down the track. Yesterday’s three votes by the Honolulu City Council moved the project along closer to groundbreaking, which is still scheduled for late this year.

As each one of these necessary steps is successfully achieved, West Oahu commuters are that much nearer to leaving their cars and traffic concerns behind in favor of taking Honolulu’s elevated train to and from work in one of the most scenic places on Earth.

From where we sit, the view both inside and outside City Council chambers looks great!

Star-Bulletin: ‘Foolish’ Not To Build Rail Now

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin today continues the daily newspapers’ editorial support for Honolulu’s rail project. Disagreeing with rail critics who urge a go-slow approach, the paper says “…prompt action is warranted to help Hawaii’s economy and keep costs down.” The editorial concludes:

“The reliability of future federal funds is backed by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye’s chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It would be foolish not to capitalize on the circumstances at the very time stimulus is needed.”

The Honolulu Advertiser took a similar position in an editorial on October 14.

Appreciating Paris Metro’s Teachable Moments

Our stroll today on this little vacation we’re on didn’t start out to be about transit, and in fact, most of it wasn’t. But we couldn’t help but notice as we walked beneath the Paris Metro along Boulevard de Grenelle that grade-separated transit was what we were seeing – the kind Honolulu will build.

Although most of the Paris Metro system is below ground, some segments are above grade – and we can’t help but emphasize that none of it runs in the mix of traffic. The French got that one right from the very start, way back at the end of the 19th century.

Only when we looked at today’s photos did we notice the subtle way that foliage is used to soften the view of the elevated structure. That’s especially true when you back away from the line a block or so, as seen below.

Other characteristics were much more obvious -- especially how street traffic and the Metro trains coexist without any concern whatsoever for one another, as the photos suggest. It would have been even more obvious if we had stuck around long enough to take a shot showing cars and trucks passing beneath the elevated line as a train passed over the intersection of Grenelle and Quai Branly.

Our final contribution to the little photo gallery is another form of grade-separated transit – accentuating the vertical!

Notice how the trees partially mask the structure.

At a distance the line is even less obvious.

Cars pass beneath the Metro line at Quai Branly.

A few minutes later, a Metro train passes overhead.

Another view of busy street traffic below the line.

And if cars had been there, still no problem.

A different kind of overhead transit.

Honolulu Phase 1 Contract $90 Million under Plan

Mayor Hannemann announces Phase 1 award.

The first indication that the down economy might produce savings on Honolulu’s rail project came back in August, when Mayor Mufi Hannemann said bids were coming in lower than the forecast. Today’s awarding of the Phase 1 contract confirmed it.

Kiewit Pacific Company submitted the winning bid for the 6.5-mile link from East Kapolei to Pearl Highlands -- $483 million, or about $90 million less than the original estimate.

"This award shows that we have been conservative in our estimate and our financial plan is very sound," Hannemann said in a statement. "This is why we need to get this project going now during a down economy because of the lower costs and the need to create jobs."

In an effort to realize more savings, the City now will solicit bids for Phase 2 two years earlier than planned. That phase will be 3.9 miles from Pearl Highlands to Aloha Stadium.

The project is scheduled to break ground in December; Phase 1 is targeted to be operational by 2012. The entire 20-mile rail line is planned to be operating between East Kapolei and Ala Moana Center in 2019.

Getting Graphic about Grade-Separated Transit

We write here a lot about grade-separated transit, but the term is starting to sound like transportation jargon. Some readers are probably asking what it’s all about.

A couple photos will illustrate our main point about grade-separated transit – that if you run your transit vehicle at a different level than cars, buses, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles and pedestrians are on, you eliminate the possibility that transit commuters can be delayed by traffic congestion. Have a look:

Boulevard St-Germain, Paris, 3:48 pm, 10/20/09

Odéon Metro Station, beneath Boulevard St-Germain,

3:53 pm, 10/20/09

Honolulu’s future train will be grade-separated, but instead of running below ground as the Paris Metro does, it will be elevated about 30 feet above the city's streets. And there’s another significance difference: The Paris Metro can be a pretty boring underground ride, but Honolulu’s train will give riders exceptional views of two mountain ranges, US Navy ships in Pearl Harbor, civilian ships entering and leaving Honolulu harbor, passing showers and their rainbows, sunrises and sunsets, Honolulu's city lights, sailboats at sea and all the other sights Oahu’s south shore has to offer. Boring it won't be, which leads us to conclude:

Vive la différence!

Overpass Mishap Causes Another Massive Traffic Jam; Honolulu Rail Riders Won’t Have that Worry

A worker chips away at impact spot in Friday's overpass strike.

Anyone traveling east through town on Honolulu’s H-1 freeway around noon on Friday knows all about the two-hour-long stoppage caused by yet another overpass accident.

Yesterday’s jam wasn’t nearly as long as the infamous 2006 Aiea Heights pedestrian overpass strike. Thousands of homeward-bound drivers were stuck in traffic then for eight hours or more; some gave up and spent the night in Waikiki.

Friday’s accident similarly involved a truck hauling construction equipment that was too high to clear the overpass. This strike won’t require an overpass tear-down – the fate of the pedestrian bridge – but it shows how unpredictable it an be to drive across town.

The Beauty of Grade Separation

Which brings us to a familiar topic here at Yes2Rail: Grade-separated transit is the only way to travel through an urban area with a predictable arrival time. They issue timetables, after all! Grade-separated transit allows you to anticipate when you'll arrive according to your departure time – every time, no matter what’s happening with ground-level traffic.

Honolulu’s’ future elevated rail system is designed to operate completely free of traffic congestion, like yesterday's (above). Commuters will be unaffected by road and highway delays – whether caused by accidents or the usual drive-time congestion.

That’s why our favorite new slogan for Honolulu’s future rail system (though not original) is “Elevated Transit – the Only Way to Fly” – and it will seem like flying compared to being stuck in the same old commuting-by-car routine.

‘tiser’s Editorial Urges Council To ‘Stay on Course’

It’s getting so we want to turn to the editorial page first! Today’s Honolulu Advertiser editorial makes for good reading if you’re a supporter of the City’s rail transit project.

Other recent pro-rail pieces on the Advertiser’s opinion page include its September 27th “Let’s Move On and Make Rail Happen” editorial and last Sunday’s Hot Seat interview with Don Horner, CEO of First Hawaiian Bank.

Noting the Federal Transit Administration’s recent go-ahead to the project for Preliminary Engineering, the editorial captured the critical nature of this most recent step:

The importance of this Federal Transit Administration approval must not be underestimated. Permission of the FTA to proceed with preliminary engineering means that the Honolulu project has risen to the top of the stack of "new starts" proposals vying for federal dollars. That signifies a consensus among key FTA officials that the project meets the high bar set by federal regulations for its initial planning and financial blueprint.

The project looks to be meeting its schedule for a December groundbreaking, and that likely will happen if the editorial’s advice to stay the course is heeded.

Pearlridge Station Workshop

The second community-based workshop on the Pearlridge station will be held Thursday evening, 5-30-9:00 at the Pearl Ridge Elementary School, 98-940 Moanalua Road. The project team will present preliminary sketches and designs for station entrances. Area residents are invited to participate and provide feedback to the team. For information on the free workshop, call 566-2299.

Feds OK Honolulu Rail for Preliminary Engineering

The Federal Transit Administration has given Honolulu a green light to begin Preliminary Engineering for the local rail transit system. We put PE in caps because FTA authorization for this phase is a key step along the way to groundbreaking for the project, scheduled late this year.

Senator Daniel K. Inouye made the announcement:

“This is a critical federal milestone and an important accomplishment in the development of Honolulu’s Rail Transit Project. The competition for Preliminary Engineering among our nation’s cities is fierce. This approval is, in large part, a credit to Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s administration, and a result of the Honolulu project meeting the stringent federal planning and financial justification requirements.”

Future steps include publishing the Final Environmental Impact Statement, scheduled for sometime this month. The Draft EIS was released last November and prompted hundreds of comments and suggestions that the City has built into the Final document.

Here's the Advertiser's story (with a video of Mayor Mufi Hannemann's news conference) on the FTA's approval of Preliminary Engineering; the Star-Bulletin also has coverage.

Sunday Roundup Includes Groundbreaking Target

Reading the Sunday Advertiser can be a “Serenity Now!” moment for rail transit advocates. Some of us would turn to Cosmo Kramer’s incantation for stress relief that he made memorable in a particularly hilarious Seinfeld episode.

It seemed as if Sunday couldn’t go by without another downbeat assessment of the project, and the demand for tight headline writing often blackened the picture. But today’s page one head in the print edition (the online version is different) has it right:

“December groundbreaking still in sight for rail project”

What follows is a pretty straightforward timeline of the key hurdles that must be cleared for a December groundbreaking. The story quotes some of the usual skeptics but also has a City Council member’s assertion that moving the project forward means “not looking back on all the decisions that have already been made.”

That could have been a reference to the eleventh-hour proposal by some that a portion of the 20-mile rail route be built at street level. That option already was studied and discarded for its inability to provide fast, frequent and reliable transit service.

A Banker’s Assessment

Elsewhere in the paper, First Hawaiian Bank CEO Don Horner gives a strong endorsement of the project in the Focus section’s “Hot Seat” feature. Horner was asked if Honolulu can afford the rail project:

“I had the privilege of chairing a committee for Business Roundtable to look at this subject when the heated debate was going on, and just before…we all voted for rail. I think the short answer is yes…. What people don’t understand is this system is designed to be a 16-year full payout. So it’s just like a 15-year mortgage. So at the end of 15 years, this is fully paid off.”

Another questioner asked why business should support rail, particularly those not on the route:

“…The gridlock we are experiencing on the west side is not sustainable. That’s where the growth is. I mean the same question could be asked why should we build H-3? Why should we widen Kalanianaole Highway? Why did we widen that road all the way to Hawaii Kai? So I think it’s the west side’s turn. The west side has not ever been endowed with a lot of infrastructure, historically. So, I think it’s good that we start on the west side….”

Horner’s “Hot Seat” is worth a read for its coverage of other topics, including this comment about the Wall Street disarray that led to the economy’s troubles:

“There’s investment banking and Main Street banking. I’m a Main Street banker; I’m not a Wall Street banker. I don’t understand all those fancy things. That’s why we are not in trouble. We do things pretty simple. We loan money to people who can pay us back. That’s the reason I love Hawaii, because most of the people in Hawaii pay you back.”

No wonder Cosmo Kramer always wanted to be a banker.

Digging Deep in Remote Places for Transit Insights

A shift today from socko to subtle – from images of train-vehicle collisions to a more nuanced message about why at-grade rail isn’t right for Honolulu’s future system.

An Arizona Republic online story describes Tempe’s options for connecting with Phoenix’s at-grade Metro light rail.

“Tempe’s streetcar would look similar to Metro light-rail trains but would be smaller, carry fewer passengers and weigh less,” says the story. “The streetcar would be able to stop as often as every block, which is much more frequent than light-rail stops.”

In other words, Tempe's at-grade option would be slower, smaller, less efficient and (socko) vulnerable to collisions with other surface traffic.

That’s quite a contrast with Honolulu’s rail system (groundbreaking late this year) which will be a high-speed, high-volume, highly safe and highly reliable option for traveling the 20 miles between East Kapolei and Ala Moana Center.

You can’t say the same for at-grade transit, and there’s nothing subtle about it.

When Safety Is Crucial, Think Elevated Rail

We’re at risk of becoming a bore on the subject of rail safety by mentioning it so often, but when you get right down to it, what could be more important? We’ll put safety at the top of the list, and we have to believe our fellow citizens do, too.

That’s why we continue to post here about the built-in safety of Honolulu’s elevated rail system, which is scheduled to break ground late this year. By being above vehicular and pedestrian traffic, Honolulu’s trains won’t “interact” with cars, trucks, buses and people.

Phoenix’s METRO light rail has been operating since December and is averaging five collisions a month, which has prompted the operators to launch a Light Rail Safety campaign called Stay Aware, Stay Safe. Signs posted along the 20-mile route (at left) remind drivers of the ever-present danger of a collision, and the system’s website carries this cautionary warning:

"At any time of the day or night, you can find yourself near an operating light rail vehicle or a METRO train consisting of two or three vehicles connected together. Each METRO vehicle is 90 feet long and weighs more than 100,000 pounds. Now is the time to learn and practice the rules of light rail safety."

Honolulu’s elevated system will require no such warnings, because its trains won’t intersect with a single street, crosswalk, bike path or highway, unlike the proposal being circulated around town for at-grade transit.

“Safety is our most important product” is a shop-worn marketing phrase, but it’s also an assertion that will distinguish Honolulu’s future rail system.

Theory vs. Experience at Heart of Rail Debate

Today’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin carries two columns about whether Honolulu’s rail system should be built at ground level or elevated, which is the current plan.

The columns are of approximately the same length. The difference? One is written by an architect who whose main argument favoring at-grade rail is its alleged “flexibility.” The other column favoring an all-elevated system is by the man who runs Phoenix’s at-grade rail.

Read both, and as you do, consider which person has the qualifications and experience to know which version of rail will be most beneficial for Honolulu. To us, there’s no contest.

Richard Simonetta is the chief executive officer of Metro Rail, which began operating its 20-mile at-grade system in December. Here are the key statements in his commentary in support of elevated rail for Honolulu:

Surface rail works quite well in the Valley of the Sun because we have relative low density and wide arterial streets with ample room for the trains and cars to share the right-of-way.

From my observations, the same conditions do not apply in Honolulu. Widening streets to incorporate a rail system would seriously disrupt communities and be enormously expensive. With the density of development that already exists along your route, hundreds of businesses and residences would be dislocated for right of way. Surface rail would most likely result in the removal of traffic lanes, which would inevitably increase congestion where the desire is to reduce congestion.

The elevated system Honolulu has planned avoids this. With support columns placed in the roadway median, it won't consume through traffic lanes. And while it will require some right-of-way acquisitions, they will be far fewer than a surface route would require.

Honolulu's elevated rail system operating on an exclusive trackway will have other benefits. It will be much faster than surface rail because the elevated trains won't have to compete with other traffic at intersections.

The Phoenix light rail system crosses 149 signalized intersections and takes 65 minutes to travel 20 miles. Increased speed also means more frequent service and more ridership. Honolulu's elevated rail is projected to carry 100,000 riders a day when fully operational. Our system carries about one-third of that.

Finally, an elevated rail line will also be safer for rail passengers, motorists and pedestrians. The Phoenix surface rail line has averaged five collisions per month since opening last December, resulting in personal injuries, costly damage to trains and vehicles, and service delays to passengers. (An earlier post here has graphic examples of these collisions.)

In contrast, the elevated, automated SkyTrain system in Vancouver, British Columbia, has operated for 23 years without a single accident.

I urge Honolulu to keep moving forward with your elevated rail system. You only have one opportunity to get it right.

In my opinion, you are making the right choice and your community will reap rewards for years to come.

City Report Says Rail’s Tax Revenue Sufficient; Collections for FY ’09 $12 Million Above Forecast

This should put to rest the hand wringing in some circles about whether general excise tax collections will be sufficient to fund the local portion of the Honolulu rail transit project.

As the City correctly noted in August, when headlines trumpeted the alleged shortfall, the May report on which those headlines and finger wagging were based was outdated. Now comes the August financial plan, with updated information the City stands behind:

• Forecasts for GET surcharge revenues are approximately $200 million higher through Fiscal Year 2023. This projection takes into account the actual GET surcharge received in Fiscal Year 2009 was $12 million higher than the most recent estimate, along with assumed annual growth rates.

• Federal Funds through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will be sufficient for capital and financing costs not covered by GET surcharge revenues.

Not even included in those key findings are two other important issues -- the Council on Revenues’ projection for robust growth for the next six years, and the bids the City has received for project work that are 10 to 25 percent lower than forecast.

So what’s the lesson learned here for the average news consumer? It could be this:

Be wary of dire predictions about the rail project – especially when the source of all the Sturm und Drang is likely a rail opponent whose pessimism is channeled by an over-eager journalist.

Editorial: “Let’s Move On and Make Rail Happen”

The editorial in today’s Honolulu Advertiser has landed on the community’s collective doorstep at exactly the right time. “Thanks for sharing, but no thanks” it says to those who want to make a major change in the Honolulu rail system.

Their eleventh-hour suggestion that some or all of the project should be built at ground level – right down there in the mix of cars, trucks, buses and pedestrians – has failure written all over it.

As the newspaper rightly observes, an at-grade system would not be fast, would not be as frequent and would not be as reliable and therefore not as attractive to commuters as a system built entirely above the city’s streets. We've made the same arguments here for months. The editorial concludes:

“The city has done its homework, and the will to proceed is there at last. Let’s not waste time and precious dollars with this political paralysis. The decision is made, and it’s high time for the follow-through. Let’s move on and make rail happen for Honolulu.”

Keep reading below for some graphic illustrations of what’s been happening with the new at-grade system in Phoenix, AZ. A Phoenix television station carried an extensive video report on a recent crash that sent three people, including two train passengers, to the hospital.

Among At-Grade’s Negatives, Part 2: Accidents

Inattention aftermath in Phoenix, AZ

It’s not exactly Demolition Derby, but the number of train-vehicle accidents since the Phoenix, AZ at-grade system opened nine months ago is pretty astonishing.

The Phoenix media are keeping tabs, and you can experience many of the crashes thanks to on-train video that captures what happens all too often on the streets of Arizona’s biggest city. One recent crash in Phoenix delayed service for eight hours (here's another link to that crash.) Accidents that don't even involve a train can slow service. (These YouTube screen captures show the moment just prior to impact.)

The safety comparisons of at-grade and elevated rail are obvious. Whereas the Phoenix system averaged an accident once every six days during its first three months of operation, elevated systems have no cross streets to contend with. That translates to delays at-grade, no delays elevated.

Fast, Frequent and Reliable service is what Honolulu needs and what Honolulu’s elevated train system will deliver. We can’t accept anything less.

If you want more visual evidence of at-grade collisions, YouTube offers quite a collection.

Among At-Grade’s Negatives: Vehicle Lane Loss

Houston's at-grade train

At-grade rail advocates continue to shop their eleventh-hour proposal around town, so we’ll continue pointing out what they don’t.

The above photo from Houston, TX shows what happens when you drop train tracks into an existing city street. In short, you replace traffic lanes.

Maybe that works in Houston’s wide-open spaces, but as Honolulu residents know, our city is tightly compressed between mountains and the ocean. We simply can’t eliminate lanes that currently service cars, buses and trucks when we build our rail system.

The only way to retain the same number of lanes when at-grade tracks are added to a street is to widen it – i.e., take property on both sides. That’s also unacceptable in Our Honolulu.

The City’s plan to build an elevated train system is solid for all the reasons we've repeatedly mentioned here. The photo makes one of those points perfectly.

Jogging & Keeping Pace with an At-Grade Train

Sacramento's light rail train

We’ve done some up-close-and-personal observing of why Kamehameha School’s proposal for an at-grade transit system through much of its route would not deliver fast, frequent and reliable mobility to riders.

We’re in Sacramento for a couple days and watched a light rail train make its way through downtown Sacramento yesterday. The photo shows a train turning from the K Street Mall onto 12th Street about a block from State Capitol Park.

The train’s speed – that’s not the right word; “rate of advancement” is more like it – was about as fast as a slow-to-moderate marathon runner. In other words, you could jog as fast as the train moved.

Once you see what at-grade delivers, it’s nothing short of shocking that the New Jersey consultant’s at-grade plan is being shopped all over town. It’s a recipe for failure to meet Honolulu’s needs, because it wouldn’t be fast, wouldn’t be frequent, and because accidents are virtually inevitable when transit trains are in the vehicle mix, it wouldn’t be as reliable as an elevated system.

KS’s proposal doesn’t meet the common-sense test. Next time you’re in a city with at-grade transit, do some up-close-and-personal observing of your own. Jog along with the train; observe it stopping for cross streets; listen as it rings its bell incessantly as it approaches intersections; watch as it stops at the light for traffic.

Then ask yourself: With all the twists and turns in the proposed at-grade plan, how in the world could it possibly benefit Honolulu?

Which One Gives You the Best Performance — a Well-Rehearsed Orchestra or a One-Man Band?

If you’re like most of us, you’ll put your money on the orchestra. It has a support structure, a musical director, a conductor and dozens of professional musicians all focused on giving the audience the product of their collective experience.

The one-man band? Not so much.

That’s the contrast we see between the City’s plan to build a fast, frequent and reliable elevated rail transit system through Honolulu and the plan Kamehameha Schools is touting.

As we said a couple days ago and on many other occasions, the City’s project has been planned, vetted and polished by hundreds of professionals. KS’s plan was written by one consultant in New Jersey.

Some people are attracted to solo performances, and you can find a few of them tapping their toes to the Johnny-One-Note rhythm: “It’s cheaper…, it’s cheaper…, it’s cheaper….” But KS’s at-grade proposal wouldn’t be as fast, wouldn’t carry as many commuters and wouldn’t arrive as reliably on time nor as frequently as the City’s well-conceived system. In other words, it wouldn't do what needs doing.

An orchestras and a one-man band may both fit the narrow definition of a music-making "organization," but the comparisons stop there. One grabs your attention with a lot of cymbal work and makes a stab at playing several instruments at once. The orchestra delivers the complete package.

As the City nears groundbreaking on its rail system, we simply can't afford distractions by a cacophony of false notes.

What Every Consumer Asks When Making a Purchase: ‘Will It Do What I Need It To Do?’

That’s the question savvy buyers ask either consciously or intuitively about what they buy. If it won’t get the job done, we’ll take a pass.

A family of five might like some of the features of a snazzy two-seater that can fit into almost any nook or cranny of a parking space, but will it do what the family needs doing? Of course not.

That’s what also must be asked of the allegedly “cheaper rail plan” displayed on page one of today’s Honolulu Advertiser – especially since rail transit will be the biggest purchase ever in the islands. (This graphic shows a segment of the proposed new route, in red; the City's intended route is blue. Note the six turns of close to 90 degrees or more in the new idea.)

Fast, Frequent and Reliable

Honolulu residents are like that family of five. Our collective need for transit requires it to be a fast, frequent and reliable alternative to sitting in traffic for 100,000 or more riders each day.

(9/14 UPDATE: For a second opinion, visit this site.)

Our rail transit train must travel the 20 miles between East Kapolei and Ala Moana Center at relatively high speeds – 55 mph or more between stations. It must do so frequently, with only 3 minutes or even less time between trains during rush hour. And it must make its fast and frequent runs reliably on time, every time.

Despite the alleged advantages of the new proposal, it would be about as useful to Honolulu commuters as a Smart Car is to a family of five. Putting any portion of the system at street level would destroy all three of our requirements.

It wouldn’t be a fast way to commute; one glance at the above map with its right-angle turns and dozens of streets, lanes and roads crossing the at-grade route makes that clear enough. This photograph from Phoenix illustrates the traffic mix issue.

It wouldn’t be as frequent as above-grade trains; with drivers at the controls (unlike a fully automated elevated system), trains would require much greater intervals between them.

And since at-grade trains would share streets with pedestrians, cars and trucks, it would not be reliable due to the inevitable accidents that occur just about everywhere at-grade systems operate.

That’s Not All

Because at-grade trains must be shorter than the shortest city block (about 170 feet in Chinatown) to avoid blocking intersections, they could be only half as long as elevated trains, which means each train would carry fewer passengers.

Finally, the new study’s claim that at-grade rail would be cheaper also is suspect. Consider what would happen to property along Dillingham Boulevard, for example, if tracks were to run at street level rather than overhead as currently planned.

Dillingham is a major east-west thoroughfare through urban Honolulu, so that last thing you’d want to do is increase vehicle congestion by eliminating lanes to accommodate rail. The only way to retain the same number of lanes would be to widen the Dillingham corridor – i.e., carve out more lanes from the adjacent properties.

This new plan – apparently the work of one “railway system designer and consultant” in New Jersey – truly is an eleventh-hour idea that is coming in close to midnight. Groundbreaking could happen in three months on our system, which has been planned, vetted and polished by hundreds of professionals here and elsewhere.

Whatever you buy today, consciously ask yourself, “Is this what I need to get the job done?” If you can ask that for yourself and your family, we all can do the same for the biggest purchase we’ve ever made.

“Will this new proposal do the job Honolulu needs doing – move tens of thousands of our collective family quickly, efficiently, frequently and reliably across town?”

If the answer is no, we definitely need to take a pass.

More Evidence of What Riding Rail Will Avoid

An editor once told us to use words like we spend dollars – sparingly. That time-saving advice is handy on football Saturday, so check out these photographs of the traffic nightmare future Honolulu train commuters will bypass.

If Pictures = Lots of Words, Check Out This One

This graphic shows the expected result after the Honolulu rail system is built between East Kapolei and Ala Moana Center.

Each 300-passenger train will carry the same number of commuters as 200-plus private cars.

The resulting shift from car to rail is expected to reduce surface congestion by about 20 percent within two decades compared to what traffic would be if rail weren’t up and running, which is what it's scheduled to be doing 10 years from now.

The project is expected to reduce vehicle miles traveled in 2030 by about 4 percent, with a corresponding 4-percent reduction in pollutants emitted by vehicles not driven thanks to the system.

The bottom line on Honolulu's rail transit project: It will be Fast, Frequent and Reliable -- which is what you get when you build it as currently planned on an elevated guideway above all surface congestion.

Flurry of Stories Keeps Rail Project in the News

From Kaiaulu `O Kaka`ako Master Planxxxx

Elevated rail line runs mauka of the planned development's buildings.

We’re playing catch-up with the news generated about rail and traffic over the past couple days. An interest in renewable energy technology took us to Waikiki and the Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Summit & Expo yesterday to see how ocean power one day will be used to power Honolulu’s train. (So will wind, solar and other forms of clean energy.)

We’ll quickly dispense with the Wednesday column that continued to beat on an alleged GET collection shortfall on the project. The “shortfall comparisons” focus on current GET collections (unsurprisingly below the project’s 16-year trend line) and ignore the anticipated above-the-trend-line collections after the recovery. The project’s financial plan (also unsurprisingly) looks at the whole picture, a normal practice in responsible planning.

Worsening Congestion

But that was yesterday’s news. Today, the Advertiser reports on a study by TRIP, a national transportation research group, that includes this observation:

“Traffic congestion in Hawai`i’s largest urban areas is likely to worsen significantly unless the state is able to improve its transportation system.”

Improving urban transportation is what the City’s rail project will do, of course. Commuters today have no alternative to sitting in congestion during peak travel hours – a condition that can mean near or complete gridlock as shown in the photograph in the margin, above right.

Kakaako Development

The Advertiser’s lead story covers the Hawaii Community Development Authority’s approval of a large residential and commercial redevelopment of the Kakaako district.

The elevated rail line will run along Halekauwila Street on the mauka border of the redevelopment project and above the surface street congestion anticipated by the TRIP report in years ahead.

The Kakaako station “will help create dense pockets of potential transit commuters,” the report says.

Bids for Rail’s First Segment Under Budget

What the……!? Two positive stories on rail within 72 hours?

First came Thursday’s Council on Revenues forecast for five years of strong economic growth once we get past the current fiscal year. You didn’t find that message until deep into the stories and below the downer headlines, but the overall picture was positive.

Now comes today’s word from City Hall that bids for the first construction phase of the transit project between Kapolei and Waipahu are coming in 10-25 percent under expectations in February, when the request for proposals went out.

Major government projects are experiencing that all over the country, and it’s no different here. (Joni Earl, CEO of Sound Transit, spoke to this point when she was in Honolulu for the June transit symposium.) Two early newscasts carried the item, with KGMB giving video treatment to Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s press conference:

Next up: Tuesday evening’s Pearlridge Station Community Workshop at Pearlridge Elementary School, 98-940 Moanalua Road, from 6:30-9 o’clock.

6 am Monday Update:

Today's newspaper coverage of the Mayor's news-making press conference is comment worthy. The Star-Bulletin story includes anti-rail comments by a long-time critic who continues in his apparent belief that the current recession will last forever. That's the only way his projection of a financing shortfall could turn out to be the case. Every piece of good economic news, such as the Council on Revenue's forecast and increasing tourism numbers, eats away at his gloomy prediction.

As for the Advertiser's "coverage".......there isn't any, and maybe that says a lot.

Revenues Panel Sees 5 Years of Tax Growth

We admit to a jerky restart of Yes2Rail after several months of dormancy. The site’s patina of rust needed more spit and polish than we had anticipated, so we used some of it to polish up a new look to this blog. Now we’re back – and with some pretty good news for Honolulu’s rail transit project:

After a couple years of dismal forecasts for Hawaii’s economy, the state Council of Revenues has issued a five-year tax forecast that anticipates positive long-term growth.

According to today's Council report, Hawaii’s economic recovery will begin in Fiscal Year 2011, which is forecast to see 6.5-percent growth. The report says tax revenues will increase through Fiscal Year 2015, which is the last year in the Council’s five-year forecast window.

The new forecast is good news for rail because general excise tax revenues will provide the local share of the project’s funding over a 16-year period. The GE tax was increased by 0.005 percent in January 2007 on Oahu for transactions by residents and visitors alike. The tax is scheduled to run through 2022.

The City’s financial model for rail anticipates GET revenues of just over $4 billion by that time. When combined with the anticipated Federal Transit Administration (FTA) New Starts funds of $1.365 billion, the total will be enough to build the 20-mile elevated rail system between Kapolei and Ala Moana Center.

The City’s draft financial plan submitted to the FTA on May 1 stirred up a journalist or two, but as Department of Transportation Services Wayne Yoshioka said last week, that’s exactly what the May 1 plan was – a draft. A newer version went to the FTA this month, and the complete project financing plan will be released in the Final Environmental Impact Statement in a month or so.

Some headlines already are highlighting the economy’s forecasted 1.5-percent contraction next year, and that undoubtedly is significant elsewhere in the state. But building the rail project is a 16-year process and requires a long-term view to get the complete picture.

The Council’s report today offered reason for optimism that the picture is going to look good.

Mississippi River Still Rollin' Along to the Gulf

Davenport's lock and dam #15, largest roller dam in the world.

The high school reunion showed us how much things had changed in 50 years, but a look around the hometown showed us some things haven’t changed at all. For example, the river outside our hotel was still flowing left to right this morning when viewed from the Iowa side. (Several hours later, it still was.)

No news there, and that also was our reaction to the main story in today’s Honolulu Advertiser. The story seems like another one of those pieces the paper likes to run about the Honolulu rail project – “view with alarm” stories they called them in journalism school.

Far as we can tell from reading the story twice, the rail project is still going to cost $5.3 billion, so nothing new there. In fact, the only “new” angle in the story seems to be that the paper decided to divide that amount by the number of households on Oahu to come up with a per-household cost.

They could have done that years ago, so it looks like the story’s true purpose was to view the project’s cost “with alarm” as a way of giving space to advocates who favor an at-grade system, which they say would cost less.

The Uncounted Hidden Costs

The City counters that “an elevated train will be faster, more reliable and cheaper to operate” – not to mention safer, since at-grade systems chalk up injuries and deaths just about everywhere they’re built. It’s inevitable when you mix trains, cars, trucks and pedestrians.

Also not mentioned in the story is the cost of carving out an at-grade corridor through the urban environment. A street has to be widened to retain the same number of vehicle lanes when a rail line is added in the middle of the street. The impact on neighboring properties can be severe.

What truly is worthy of being viewed with alarm is this new effort to deviate from the current transit plan, which has been thoroughly studied and put together over several years. Keep reading, below, for reasons favoring an elevated rail line.

Honolulu’s transit plan is sound and deserves to keep on rollin’ -- keep on rollin’ along.

Above-Grade Choice Gets Stronger with Time

The City Council selected grade-separated transit nearly three years ago, and nothing that’s emerged in commentaries, letters to the editor and paid advertising has challenged the soundness of these reasons:

Reason #1: Cross traffic. Trains running at ground level would be slow trains – stopping at intersections, slowing for cross traffic, fitting in with the very congestion an overhead line would avoid.

Reason #2: Safety. Accidents happen everywhere at-grade is built, and those accidents stop the trains. That’s something we can’t tolerate in traffic-choked Honolulu. Elevated rail will avoid accidents.

Reason #3: Impact on neighborhoods. What must you do if you run two rail tracks right down the middle of a street AND keep the same number of lanes for vehicles? It’s obvious; you must widen the street. That means carving up neighborhoods, taking hundreds of properties, damaging small businesses, etc., nearly all of which is avoided by going overhead.

Reason #4: Insufficient carrying capacity. At-grade trains have to fit within the shortest city block on the route. That’s about 170 feet in Honolulu, so our trains would have only two cars if the system were at grade. Honolulu’s planned above-grade trains will be twice as long and carry twice as many passengers. That translates to being more successful in attracting riders.

Reason #5: Operating costs. An at-grade system would cost at least a third more to operate than an elevated configuration, according to the City’s analysis. That’s because each train would require a driver, unlike the fully automated elevated system.

Reason #6: Did we mention safety? This is a major consideration and deserves special consideration when the at-grade issue is broached. Transit systems that operate at ground level must contend with cars, trucks, buses and pedestrians, and accidents are almost inevitable. We will avoid needless injuries and worse by building Honolulu’s rail project above surface congestion.

If you have a question or comment about these issues, post a Comment below, and we’ll see if we can provide an answer.