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!

ChatGPT shows its potential to replace human communicators; had the AI bot been around when this pro-rail blog was created in 2008, it likely would have been the writer and not me!

 Here is what I entered into the ChatGPT website as a prompt to create a new post here at Yes2Rail:

"Honolulu elevated rail -- fast, frequent, reliable, safe. Grade-separated line avoids traffic congestion altogether. Vehicles and pedestrians will never interact with the elevated line. Trips between Kapolei and downtown Honolulu will take about 40 minutes. The project is behind schedule and above budget, but in the long run, the project will be exceptionally successful."

With that input, here's what the Artificial Intelligence program produced:

The Honolulu elevated rail project, despite being behind schedule and over budget, has the potential to be successful in the long run. The project's main advantages are its speed, frequency, reliability, and safety, as well as the fact that it avoids traffic congestion altogether by being grade-separated.The grade separation ensures that the elevated rail line will not interact with vehicles or pedestrians, reducing the risk of accidents and increasing overall safety. Additionally, the fact that trips between Kapolei and downtown Honolulu will take only 40 minutes is a significant advantage over other transportation options.While it is true that the project has faced some challenges in terms of time and cost, it is essential to note that many large-scale infrastructure projects often experience delays and cost overruns. Nevertheless, the long-term benefits of the project should not be overlooked. The elevated rail line could significantly improve transportation options for commuters, reduce traffic congestion, and improve overall mobility in the region.In summary, despite its current challenges, the Honolulu elevated rail project has the potential to be a successful long-term investment. Its advantages of speed, frequency, reliability, safety, and grade separation make it an attractive transportation option that could significantly benefit the community.You can see what this means, right? Engineers with no discernible writing talent (a judgment offered from personal experience) will input a few facts about their projects for the AI bot, hit ENTER, and sit back as AI produces serviceable content. Communications professionals? Who needs 'em?Teachers at all levels already are coping with AI-written essays that students offer up as their own work. We're already in uncharted waters.Where will it end? I have no idea, but I do know writers and editors will be among the casualties. That realization is widespread; see https://futurism.com/the-byte/bosses-already-replacing-workers-with-aiThis mini-essay was created by Yes2Rail's human originator.

The Inevitable Will Happen: Rail Will Be Completed and Fulfill its Goals by Stopping Short of Ala Moana Center

 

 It had to happen. It makes sense. Honolulu can’t simply abandon rail after a majority of the line has been built. Rail’s east end will be in Kakaako, not Ala Moana Center. Rail’s true purpose is a no-traffic transportation mode. Every post here at Yes2Rail remains valid. You’re encouraged to read some of them, starting with January 3, 2011: ‘Rail’s Goals Remain the Same; Congestion-Free Travel through Town Tops List’

We’ll Say It Again: Civil Beat’s Recent Rail Poll Was Flawed; Voters-Only Survey Didn’t Even Ask Non-Voters What They Think about Rail, and They’re More Likely To Ride the Train than Voters!

Voters and non-voters behave differently. Voters are more likely to own and travel by car. Non-voters are more reliant on public transportation. You can look it up.

So, let’s say it again: By soliciting opinions on Honolulu’s rail project only among citizens who vote, Civil Beat’s pollsters ignored the population segment more reliant on public transit than the people they surveyed.

 

Journalism Integrity

 

I’ve been out of journalism for decades, but some instincts never die. Are there no reporters in Honolulu who see the inherent flaw in ignoring the population segment that likely will determine whether rail is a success?

 

Ridership will be the ultimate test. Non-voting transit riders and non-voting car commuters have opinions, too. What do THEY think about stopping rail construction at Middle Street, which is now a consideration? What percentage of them will likely leave their cars at home and take the train?

 

Civil Beat doesn’t know, because it didn’t ask them. It never does, as seen in its opinion polls years ago. As retired UH political science professor Neal Milner told me in 2012, "the media cannot say the 'public' feels this way about rail" (see the link for context).

Until some entity does a scientific survey that cuts across the voter divide, we really don't know what "the public" thinks about rail -- especially the segment that likely will abandon cars and ride the train.

 

30 Years Ago, Honolulu's Rail Project Died; Let's Not Make that Horrible Mistake Again!

                           Page 1 treatment of Honolulu Advertiser's 10/1/92 story on rail's demise.
 

When the City Council refused to pass a tax increase in 1991 to help fund the Fasi Administration's rail project, rail died and would stay dead for a decade. Ending Honolulu's current elevated train construction at Middle Street, as now some advocate, would be another colossal mistake.

Rail has always been envisioned as a relatively fast way to travel between Kapolei and downtown by giving riders a way to avoid highway congestion. Lopping off the final four miles between Middle Street and Ala Moana Center would effectively negate any speed advantage. Transferring from the train to TheBus would be inconvenient and a time-waster.

What was a $5 billion project in the early '90s is now forecast to top out at $12 billion-plus. Traffic congestion also has worsened -- and will continue grow along with Oahu's population and tourism expansion. 

Stopping at Middle Street can't possibly be how today's funding shortfall is resolved. Finding new sources of funding is the only reasonable way to proceed -- whether it's by acquiring a tiny slice of the Biden Administration's infrastructure program or by tapping into the resources of Kakaako's landowners and property developers who stand to benefit from the system. 

Everything the two Honolulu newspapers' editorials (below) said on October 1, 1992 applies to Oahu's current transportation problems. Let's work to ensure officials don't make another colossal transit mistake 30 years after the previous one.

  

Advertiser and Star-Bulletin editorials, both on 10/1/92

Homework Assignment before Thursday’s TV Show: Read Why Rail Is Still a Must for Honolulu Despite New Challenges

 

                                                                            Elevated Transit in Lille, France

Mayor Frank Fasi arrived in Paris 30 years ago this month at the invitation of Matra Transport, the Paris-based company that would soon submit a bid to build an elevated rail line between Kapolei and UH Manoa.

Fasi and his entourage traveled by train to Lille in France’s north to inspect Matra’s elevated system there. He stood beneath the guideway (pictured above) and asked Matra’s representative when the next train would arrive.

 

“They’ve been passing overhead for several minutes,” was the reply by John Marino, Matra's North American marketing director. Fasi was shocked he hadn’t heard those trains, so quiet was the system.

 

Matra didn’t win the bid to build Honolulu’s $3.7 billion project. Another consortium did, but the project died in 1992 after the City Council defeated by one vote a local tax to help pay for the project.

Today, Honolulu’s resurrected system is miles shorter and vastly more expensive than the plan pursued by Frank Fasi, a rail champion across the decades. Honolulu officials and citizens now debate whether it’s worth it to fund the final four miles of the line. 

 

The Need Has Never Changed

 

Ending construction at Middle Street would slash billions from the project’s cost, but doing so would cripple the effort to build a relatively fast transit line between residential communities in West Oahu and Honolulu’s employment center downtown.

 

Thursday night’s “Insights” program on PBS Hawaii’s TV channel will be devoted to “Honolulu’s Rail System – Where Are We Now?” Citizens might well prepare for that show by reviewing the rationale to build grade-separated transit along Oahu’s southern corridor.

 

An exhaustive planning study by the University of California, Berkeley examined why Honolulu is well-suited for elevated transit. The study is several years old, but the case for building a travel alternative to the automobile is unchanged. The study’s introduction notes: 

The Honolulu urban area is the fourth densest in the United States, trailing only those of Los Angeles, San Francisco-San Jose, and New York. Honolulu was the most traffic- congested U.S. city in 2011, ahead of stalwarts like Los Angeles and San Francisco (INRIX 2012). Yet unlike Los Angeles and San Francisco, Honolulu has not had an operational rail transit system to serve as an alternative to automobility since the early 20th century….

‘Train to Nowhere?’

 

Ending the line at Middle Street would match rail critics’ description of Honolulu’s current project, but leaving that argument aside, Honolulu residents might well scan the Berkeley document for its scholarly assessment of the need for rail transit here. Then watch “Insights” on Thursday at 8 p.m. 

 

Yes2Rail’s own background site is linked at the Aggregate Site in the right column above. Especially recommended are the project’s goals. 

We also propose a rallying cry at this critical stage of the project:

 

“Get Rail Done!”

Rail Enjoys New Push for a Final Resolution, and the Only Sane Path Is Completing the Project as Originally Envisioned

                                                                                  Dillingham Boulevard          Civil Beat Photo
 

Civil Beat reports on the “Mauka Shift” – the proposal to move the elevated rail alignment from the center of Dillingham Boulevard to the mauka side of the thoroughfare.

The shift presumably would reduce the complications of relocating miles of utility infrastructure beneath and alongside Dillingham. It’s become a Gordian knot-like problem for HART.

 

According to legend, Alexander the Great tried but failed to untie the fabled knot. His solution was to atop the untying and start the cutting. He sliced the knot in two with his sword. “It makes no difference how they are loosed,” he said of the rope tangle.

 

The Mauka Shift appears to be HART’s solution to untangling the utility infrastructure. Just move the alignment.

 

“Get Rail Done!”

 

You get the feeling the logjam is about to break, and the timing couldn’t be better. The new President is pushing for a $2 Trillion infrastructure improvement and rebuilding plan. HART is vowing to cut the Dillingham Knot, and the public engagement process is picking up.

 

PBS Hawaii’s “Insights” program has scheduled another rail program for April 29 at 8 p.m.: “Honolulu’s Rail System – Where Are We Now?”

 

Let’s hope Thursday’s rail discussion is enlightened and not bogged down by unproductive suggestions to kill the project, and what – leave 15 miles of guideway and support structures as a perpetual reminder of failure?

 

No, rail needs to be built at least into downtown to satisfy rail's original goals, including restoration of mobility along the southern corridor. 

 

Here’s my comment today below Civil Beat’s rail story:

 

“I propose taking one option off the table regarding rail. For the sake of clarity, stop any consideration to end this project before it is built out at least to downtown Honolulu. Use the Mauka Shift if that becomes a necessity, but build rail to a useful conclusion. Traffic is worsening by the day, let alone in future decades. Grade-separated transit is the only alternative to being stuck in that traffic. Rail won’t “solve” traffic; short of draconian policies, nothing will ever solve traffic. But rail will be the option to avoid traffic for those who choose to ride it. 

Great Britain untied itself from Europe behind the simple “Get Brexit Done” slogan. That disengagement was far more complicated than building four miles of elevated guideway along Dillingham Boulevard. 

So HART, simplify and just.....

 

“Get Rail Done!” 

Shapiro’s First 2021 Column Offers ‘Fair Shot’ to New HART Chief; That Would Be a First for the Always Anti-Rail Writer

David Shapiro’s January 3 column in the Star-Advertiser said the new CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation “deserves a fair shot to show what she can do.”

Will Shapiro keep his perennial anti-rail views in check long enough for Lori Kahikina to enjoy that fair shot? 

 

That will be a stretch; Shapiro’s been anti-rail since the start of the current project. And true to form, in the same paragraph he wished a fair shot for Kahikina, he fired another shot at rail by calling the project “ill-conceived.” 

 

There was nothing wrong with how rail was conceived. If Shapiro had understood the project’s goals from the start, he might well have been more of a supporter and less of a contributor to the caustic atmosphere that impeded rail’s progress. (Yeah, that's probably a stretch, too.)

 

Even Shapiro has to concede the need for a travel alternative for commuters moving through Oahu’s southern corridor. And, Dave, here's a news flash: Elevated rail is the ONLY way commuters and others can avoid ever-increasing traffic congestion on the island’s limited road network. 

 

The project’s four goals address Oahu’s decades-long reduction in mobility. Once completed, the rail project will restore mobility to commuters and other passengers along the island’s southern transit corridor. 

 

So yes – give Lori Kahikina a fair shot as she begins one of the most difficult undertakings in Hawaii government. Let’s see what she can do with support rather than constant opposition.

 

Ms. Kahikina needs all the support the community can deliver as she plots the path to build rail as originally planned – all 20 miles of it.

Honolulu Rail Project Ends 2020 Like Just about Everything Else Ends the Year – Side-Tracked and Delayed, but with Hope for the Future

                                   

                                       When will Honolulu's elevated rail project be completed?

Yes2Rail’s author has had an up-close-and-personal view of Honolulu’s rail romance since 1990. That’s when I first began working as a consultant to the French transit-building company Matra Transport, one of five firms that bid on Mayor Frank Fasi’s last major push to build an elevated rail alternative to sitting in at-grade traffic.

That effort ended abruptly in 1992 when the City Council failed to pass an increase in the GET to pay for the “local share.” The City wised up when it launched the current project more than a decade later. It handled the local share first, then obtained the federal portion, and then solicited bids to build the 20-mile line from Kapolei to Ala Moana Center. 

 

Like the current project, Mayor Fasi’s version would have covered 20 miles but would have ended at the University of Hawaii campus in Manoa. The cost: $3.2 billion compared to what now looks like a $11 billion-plus investment. Fearless Frank’s train would have been running since 2003.

 

That Was Then

 

I mention this little bit of history to show how badly the project has fared in its current iteration. Instead of already giving traffic-maddened commuters on Oahu’s south side a smooth trip to and from downtown for nearly two decades, the project still faces major delays and horrendous cost increases. 

 

The commuting facts of life remain unchanged in the southern corridor. One fact still justifies the project: Grade-separated transit is the only way to predict the time of arrival when you begin your commute -- on time, every time. There will be no Kapolei-to-downtown commuting alternative to sitting in traffic for the rest of this century if rail is not built as originally planned.

See the lower-right corner? Traffic will NEVER get better.

This anti-rail cartoon clipped from Honolulu Weekly years ago has multiple truths. Taxpayers indeed have had their tax burden increased to support the project. Also true is that the gridlock depicted in the cartoon has only gotten worse. 

 

The project’s four main goals will be as valid in 2021 as they were when originally created more than a decade ago. First among those equal goals is improved corridor mobility.  

 

As 2020 ends today, glimmers of good news shine through the gloom. The federal government has granted the city a one-year extension of the deadline it had set to devise a viable financial plan to complete the build-out. And, the newly appointed leader of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has said she supports building the final five miles of the elevated guideway all the way to Ala Moana Center.

 

With 2020 behind us, rail supporters can at least take some measure of hope that 2021 will be a new beginning for the project – and for just about everything else.

HART: Despite COVID-19, “Right Now We Are on Our Schedule” To Begin Rail Operations Late this Year

                                                                     Honolulu Star-Advertiser photo

It’s way too soon to know for sure, but the head of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit (HART) is sticking to his prediction that Honolulu’s elevated rail project will launch service late this year – coronavirus notwithstanding.

Andrew Robbins, HART’s chief executive officer, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “We talked to our contractors. … They’ve all been advising their employees about hand-washing, safe practices, if you don’t feel well, who to call; but other than that, it’s been business as usual. They’ve been out there working.”

Hitachi Rail, the project’s contractor, has warned that its supply chain may be affected by the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and has thereby taken the position that it should not suffer “force majeure” penalties if it can’t stick to its schedule. As the Star-Advertiser story notes, HART doesn’t agree.

                                                         Platform safety doors (HART photograph)

In other “news” (that’s nearly 7 years old), Honolulu’s elevated rail system will be far safer than planned when we broke off writing Yes2Rail in 2012.

HART approved the addition of Platform Safety Screens back in 2013 that will prevent passengers from accidentally falling, being pushed, or deliberately jumping onto the tracks.

We had seen these safety doors in action in Paris when we visited more than a decade ago; the photo (below-right) was taken from inside a train car. Two sets of doors are visible in the photo -- doors on the train itself (the shiny chrome set) and doors on the platform (showing as white). The doors open simultaneously in sync with one another, just like the elevators in a building.

These doors were on the high-traffic Line #1, which runs east-west through the heart of Paris. The doors were added long long after the Paris Metro began operating.

The change to add doors on the Honolulu system is likely an under-appreciated feature by future riders. If you’re like us, you edge away from the tracks as a train arrives in a subway or metro station. The safety doors may even convince parents and grandparents that young school-age children in their families can ride Honolulu rail safely.

For now, stay safe by maintaining your social distancing during the COVID-19 crisis!