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.)
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!
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