‘State Plans Further Review of Rail Issues’ and ‘Generalissimo Francisco Franco Is Still Dead!’

General Franco is still dead! That’s what we thought when we read the Advertiser’s front-page story today under the (print edition) headline “State plans further review of rail issues.”

The paper reported virtually the same thing just a few days ago. Here’s the online headline over the Advertiser’s November 24 story: “Lingle promises thorough review of Honolulu rail project.”

And Generalissimo Francisco Franco Is Still Dead!

OK, for those of you not around during Saturday Night Live’s amazing inaugural 1975 season, that headline was used for weeks by Chevy Chase in the show’s Weekend News Update. Franco had lingered near death for so long that on slow news days, the network newscasts would tell us that he was still hanging on.

Once he died, the SNL crew parodied the networks and their news divisions with the catch phrase about Franco’s ongoing death. Maybe you had to be there, but it became SNL’s first iconic catch phrase. Wikipedia has a thorough discussion on it.

The Advertiser’s repetitious coverage of the rail project is parody material, since the lead reporter’s approach rarely strays from its view-with-alarm angle. We half expect to read a major story in a week or so on the State's continuing promise of a thorough review.

And Generalissimo Francisco Franco Is Still Dead!

At-Grade Backers Stay Silent on Accident Issue

It’s been a few weeks since we spent any time on the issue of at-grade transit safety. Our earlier posts included some graphic visuals about the consequences when at-grade trains meet cars, trucks, buses or pedestrians.

So it’s time for an update from the nation’s newest major rail system – Phoenix’s 20-mile project that opened last December.

News Item, November 5:

A minivan collided with a light rail train Thursday afternoon, near Central and Indian School. Firefighters at last 5 people were injured, some with life threatening injuries. The accident shut down light rail while crews tried to help the injured and clear the accident. Central Avenue had to be shut down for a time while crews cleared the scene. It's unclear at this time who was at fault.

News Item, November 13:

An accident between a light-rail train and a truck Friday has caused a 10- to 25-minute delay in vehicle traffic on eastbound Washington Street, officials said. Three people on the train said they were injured but no one was taken to the hospital, said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department. The crash happened around 10:30 a.m. near First Avenue and Jefferson Street, said Hillary Foose, spokeswoman for Metro Light Rail. The train will continue service, officials said.

Lost in the at-grade advocates’ concern for view planes and whatnot is the very real fact that at-grade trains are involved in accidents at an alarming rate. People are injured, schedules are quickly made invalid and at-grade systems continuously fail the reliability test, as well as the safety test.

So as we head deeper into the holiday season with its message of peace, goodwill and health to all people, let’s remember this central fact about grade-separated trains: They don’t run down pedestrians and aren’t targets for other vehicles.

The at-graders simply ignore this obvious advantage to Honolulu’s planned elevated rail system, and they really ought not do that – especially during the holidays.

Governor’s Stated Insistence on Preserving Road Lanes Seemingly Eliminates At-Grade Alternative

The beautiful thing about this age of modern communications we’re in is that years-old news is just a click away. Take this comment by Governor Linda Lingle reported in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in October 2003 about the proposal then to build a bus rapid transit system:

“I won’t support any project that takes existing lanes off the roadway,” the Governor said.

This on-the-record sentiment is pertinent to the current Honolulu rail transit project, which will involve an elevated 20-mile rail system between East Kapolei and Ala Moana Center.

Some rail opponents are saying the Governor should refuse to accept the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement when it’s completed because they allege alternatives such as at-grade transit were not studied.

Aside from the fact that they were thoroughly evaluated (see the Alternatives Analysis and all its accompanying documentation), at-grade transit most certainly does replace roadway lanes. You can’t drop parallel rail tracks into a street without replacing one or more lanes for vehicles unless – and this is a big “unless” – you’re prepared to condemn property to widen the roadway to preserve the same number of lanes.

At-Grade = Condemnation

This inevitable result of building at-grade transit also has been thoroughly evaluated and found unacceptable compared to the Locally Preferred Alternative of an elevated fixed guideway. As planned, the City’s rail project will require the taking of about 40 properties along its 20-mile length. The Phoenix, AZ, at-grade system that began operations last December took nearly 1,000 properties along the same length.

Rail’s opponents never talk about the need to condemn more property to build at-grade transit, of course, and they generally ignore at-grade’s inability to achieve the project’s goals – fast, frequent and reliable transit.

Public opinion clearly supports the City’s elevated plan, and we continue to refer readers to the results of the QMark survey, which asked for responses to this statement:

“The City & County of Honolulu with approval from the voters of Oahu is moving forward with the development of a 20-mile elevated rail transit line that will connect West Oahu with downtown Honolulu and Ala Moana Center."

Sixty percent of the respondents responded with support for that description, and 69 percent said they believe rail will be a good investment.

The poll's results cannot be mentioned too often and must be held up to the Governor as she is asked to accept the FEIS as evidence of the public’s attitudes. The public clearly favors an elevated rail system and, one must assume, now agrees with the City’s information that refutes the uniformly misleading assertions of rail’s opponents.

An elevated system will preserve existing roadways while speeding commuters to their destinations – on time, every time.

While “No Rubber Stamp” Pledge is No Surprise, Lingle’s Long-Term Legacy Rides on OKing FEIS

Governor Linda Lingle made the unsurprising statement on a talk show yesterday that she’ll be no “rubber stamp” when it’s time for her to sign off on the rail project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement.

Here’s the pertinent passage from the Advertiser’s story today:

"I'm going to spend my life in Hawaii," Lingle said. "I'm not going to have people look back and say 'Why couldn't you see that this couldn't work? Why didn't you force them to review the alternatives?'

"So I will not rubber-stamp the document. It will not be a quick, couple days turnaround."

Of course, the other thing people may say to the Governor if she refuses to sign the FEIS is, “What were you thinking when you stopped this project after all the effort and study that’s been put into it? And how could you possibly conclude that the alternatives hadn’t been fully analyzed or that we couldn’t afford it?”

We leave the political analysis to the newspaper columnists, but isn't the Governor saying what she has to say? She can't sign off without making statements like this, so the no-rubber-stamp pledge raises no eyebrows.

Imagining a Legacy

The Governor says she plans to be around Hawaii for quite some time, and that future presumably will be in politics. The only way “up” for her is to the United States Senate, and it’s hard to see how blocking a project backed by a solid majority of Oahu residents (where most of the votes are) could do her any good.

She certainly doesn’t want to be remembered as this century’s Rene Mansho, the Honolulu City Council member who cast the deciding vote in 1992 against the proposed rail transit tax that would have provided the local contribution for Mayor Frank Fasi’s fixed guideway project.

So let’s see how this plays out. We have to believe the Governor will conclude that the alternatives to an elevated project – alternatives that were thoroughly vetted, notwithstanding the anti-rail crowd’s assertions – all are inferior to the City’s plan.

Grade-separated transit is the only travel mode that completely avoids traffic congestion, which is why it's the only way to achieve the project's goals of providing fast, frequent and reliable transportation. It therefore is the only mode that allows you to predict your time of arrival. As we like to say here, that’s why they call it a timetable!

Surely the Governor can appreciate that central fact about the City's rail transit plan.

Slow-News Season Prompts Old-News Story

Today’s front-page story in the Advertiser plows the same ground as so many similar stories in the paper that one can’t help but conclude the reporter and perhaps some editors are waging their own war in the news columns.

Start with the headline: “Honolulu officials faulted for rejecting ground-level trains” Who’s doing the faulting? The man who wrote a report supporting at-grade transit, that’s who. Is this surprising? Is this news?

His report has been thoroughly debated and dissected already, yet here comes another story of dubious value dredging up his discredited recommendation. The Advertiser splashed this one-man plan on its front page back on September 13, and shooting holes in it was like picking off ducks in a barrel.

Please refer to the map the paper published that day showing the six turns of close to 90 degrees or more the proposed at-grade route would make around the Civic Center. The very idea that this could possibly represent a rapid-transit alternative is ludicrous.

Where's the News?

All of which makes a reportorial agenda seem plausible. You just don’t manufacture stories based on a flimsy premise that at-grade transit hasn’t been studied since a Walmart and other buildings were constructed along the route. Building a medical school or high rises doesn’t do a thing to change the fundamental weakness of this plan: It’s slow!

Build any part of Honolulu rail at ground level and you don’t have rapid transit. Build it 30 above ground and you do. And when those many new high rises planned for Kakaako are up in the air 300 feet or so, you won’t even see the guideway.

This blogger once reported for the Advertiser when it was under the editorship of George Chaplin, who did not condone news-hole bias by his reporters. Unfortunately, this particular reporter seems determined to continue his style of covering rail, and supporters of the City's transit plan must be prepared for more of the same.

Photo Shows What Rail Commuters Will Avoid

The view heading east this morning on the H-1.

We’ve had a picture posted over in our right-hand margin showing the kind of traffic congestion that frustrates Honolulu commuters all too often. It’s been there for months, so it’s time we updated it....

...from this morning! A seven-car accident on the H-1 produced yet another huge traffic backup -- which prompts us to make the central point about Honolulu’s future rail system:

Rail commuters won’t have to deal with these jams!

Grade-separated transit is the only way to accurately predict your destination arrival time. Nobody driving in from the west side this morning could do that -- not unless they calculated a huge delay because of the accident.

Here’s television coverage of the Mayor’s press conference yesterday with three major announcements on rail. It includes an interview with the man who’s probably most responsible for frustrating Honolulu’s attempts to build a modern transit system over the past two decades -- Cliff Slater. We’re happy to give Mr. Slater some space/time here so visitors to this blog can see that he offers no solutions to traffic -- just more roadblocks.

Grade-separated transit isn’t a “solution” to traffic, because traffic is likely to always be a fact of life. But it is an alternative to the gridlock experienced by commuters this morning. Oahu residents know that central fact, and that’s one reason why a majority of them support the project.

Mayor Says Transit Tax Can’t Be Raided by State; Labor Pact Secured, Another Rail Hurdle Cleared

The latest news about the Honolulu rail project is sure to fire up the opponents and prompt all sorts of vitriol. With Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s announcement today that a Project Labor Agreement with the trade unions has been sealed, the anti-rail crowd must sense that their opposition is being overtaken by events.

Nov. 18 Update: The Honolulu Star-Bulletin sees a more significant development in the Mayor's news conference -- that the signing of a construction contract with Kiewit Pacific for Phase 1 formally encumbers rail transit funds raised by the increased excise tax and protects them from a raid by the State. The Advertiser reporter either missed that critical angle entirely or simply chose to ignore it; either way, readers of his story aren't getting the whole picture.

The newspapers’ online comments sections will be their forum tonight and again tomorrow, and we recommend staying away unless you have time to waste and nothing better to do – in which case, we offer our sympathies. Our views on the Comments section were recorded here a few days ago.

Signing the PLA is significant because it eliminates the potential for strikes and other labor disputes that could interfere with the timely construction of rail. It’s only smart to have that in place, and we can imagine the enthusiasm among trades workers that this project is the way out of their personal economic straits.

The latest news on Hawaii’s tourism industry released just today shows that the stimulus to the economy rail will provide is needed more than ever. Visitor spending is off $1.4 billion in 2009, and the State forecasts a 12.6-percent reduction in visitor spending for the entire year.

All of which will trigger more stories in the Honolulu Advertiser’s news hole about the reduction in rail tax revenues – a fixation with the obvious that borders on strange. It would be refreshing to see stories about what the economic impact will be when rail construction starts early next year.

On the Move

The Mayor’s other announcement today keeps the focus on next steps. A Request for Proposals will be issued tomorrow seeking bids to build Phase 2 of the project from Pearl Highlands to Aloha Stadium. The expectation around City Hall is that the winning bid likely will be lower than originally forecast, which was the case when Kiewit Pacific won the contract to build Phase 1.

Rail is on the move, which has to please the solid majority of Oahu residents who support rail. The others will make their noise, but rail most definitely is on the move.

Searching for ‘News’ in the Rail Tax Stories

Comparing the two daily newspapers’ coverage of the Honolulu rail project is probably a consequence of our former life as a newspaper reporter here. Both editorial pages are solidly supportive, as seen in recent Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin editorials. It’s in the news hole that the coverage seems to differ.

The Advertiser today has a story in its website’s Top Breaking News section (and sure to be highlighted in tomorrow’s print edition) that transit tax collections in October were down from a year earlier. So far, the Bulletin has no similar story, but beyond the play of this particular story today, the Advertiser continues to display what some might call a fixation with rail tax revenues.

The fact that revenues are down year-to-year during the nation’s economic recession isn’t surprising in the least. Someone wrote in the Comments section below the Advertiser’s online story today that the paper’s monthly coverage of the tax revenues has the same predictability about it as the “Hawaiian Airlines Tops On-Time List” stories we see each month.

Viewing with Alarm

Until the economy turns around (which it will; it always has), can’t we safely predict that rail tax revenues any given month will be below those of a year earlier? Almost certainly there will be such an announcement in mid-December, and we’ll be treated to yet another view-with-alarm assessment in the Advertiser. Why “view with alarm?” Because the thrust of these stories suggests an implied concern about a tax “shortfall” that seems out of line with common sense.

As the City has pointed out repeatedly, the rail project’s financial plan is sound. The construction contract for Phase One came in $90 million under budget, and future contracts are just as likely to be favorably below original forecasts. That’s what happens in a recession, and that’s what’s happening elsewhere around the country.

Local economists are predicting a recovery beginning next year, and some anticipate rather robust economic times in the coming decade. The rail project itself will provide a stimulus by employing thousands of local residents and creating taxable profits by the companies involved with rail.

Tax revenues are lower in a recession and Hawaiian Air flies on time -- two rather unremarkable factoids that nevertheless still generate headlines. You be the judge of how newsworthy they are.

Got Time To Waste? Then Spend It in “Comments”

You have to believe self-survival convinced the newspapers to glom onto the idea of allowing readers to post comments below their online stories. Driving up their websites’ visitors count by opening up a free-flowing Comments forum must have seemed like a good idea at the time – prolonging readers’ involvement with the paper long after it had been delivered.

Nice theory, but from what we can tell, the Comments section is ripping at the fabric of society as a refuge for the bigoted, profane and abusive. Drop in and see what we mean. The same people are there each day, hiding behind pseudonyms, of course, hurling thunderbolts and insults at one another. Virtually all posters use a fake name for obvious reasons.

But not everyone there makes abusive comments in the rail debate; those generally come from the anti-rail faction – a minority, we hasten to add, since a majority of Oahu residents voted for rail last year and the recent opinion survey showed that support has increased in the past year.

Voice pro-rail sentiments there and be prepared for an avalanche of invective. And God forbid that you’ve ever been associated with the City administration in any way or identified as a supporter. That’s an automatic disqualification, according to the anti-rail crowd.

One Person, One Vote

If you’ve been visiting this blog, you’ll know we’ve been reporting recently on the public opinion survey conducted a few weeks ago by a respected local polling company. You can read the results below; they show what we call landslide support for the rail project.

Which brings us – finally – to the graphic at the top of this post. Ten thousand jobs per year is a major consequence of building rail. It’s not THE reason to build it; that is and always has been to create an alternative to sitting in traffic congestion – something every great city and urban environment the world over offers its citizens.

The anti-rail people actually see the employment issue as a negative and describe rail transit negatively as a “jobs project.” And so goes the thinking from that crowd.

Spend time in the Comments section if you must – and if you believe in rail as most of Oahu residents do, then drop in some respectful comments of your own to keep the pot stirring. Otherwise, it’s in danger of being one uninterrupted sewer.

Graphics Give Insightful Look at Opinions on Rail

Media silence continues on the City-sponsored public opinion survey on rail. As a former reporter, we don’t subscribe to the popular view that reporters let their personal whims color their reporting on this issue. Of course, that was back in the day, and we have to wonder about some of the coverage rail has received lately.

But enough with analysis of journalism and on with an analysis of the poll. A link to HonoluluTransit.org displays graphics that put the pro-rail sentiment into perspective and cast doubt about the depth of anti-rail sentiment in the community, notwithstanding what’s heard on some local media.

The first graphic is a map showing the percentage of residents in each City Council district who believe rail transit is a good investment for Honolulu:

That’s a remarkable result in light of the negativity that gets so much media attention. Another graphic makes a similar point regarding overall support for the project:

Every district shows majority support for rail, all of which underlies the wisdom of the adage that you can’t believe everything you read in the newspapers – or don’t read, for that matter.

Review: LYNX Is ‘Fast, Comfortable, Affordable’

The dean of Honolulu journalists has spoken. Wayne Harada, albeit technically retired, still writes for the Honolulu Advertiser – and writes and writes and writes. He must be going for the billion-word mark, and he sure does get around.

Today's column is datelined Charlotte, NC, where Wayne has found surprisingly good things – including the city’s light rail system called LYNX. Here’s Wayne’s mini-review:

• Light rail is limited — only 9.6 miles long now, with plans for expansion — but very evident here. I caught a ride the other day; LYNX, as it’s called, is fast, comfortable, affordable ( $1.50 one way), and — take note, Mayor Mufi Hannemann — is spurring development along the route, with condos and businesses in construction even in the soft economy. There are 15 stations, seven park-and-ride-locations — and LYNX serves a corridor from I-485 at South Boulevard to Uptown Charlotte, with Center City in the service zone.

Written like a fan, something Wayne Harada knows a lot about, having covered the Advertiser’s entertainment beat for 44 years. And he has lots of company there in Charlotte.

Chatham Olive, past president of the Sierra Club Charlotte chapter, was in Honolulu for June’s Transit Symposium and sat for an interview. He notes that rail in Charlotte has improved the environment by taking drivers out of their pollution-coughing cars.

That’s something Wayne Harada will appreciate about Honolulu’s rail system when it’s completed within a decade. Keep writing, Wayne.

Poll Parsing: Big Majority Sees Economic Benefit

It’s reassuring to know that the vast majority of our fellow island residents haven't been fooled by the anti-rail rhetoric encountered here and there. That’s one of our conclusions from the recently released public opinion poll conducted by QMark, a respected local survey firm.

The company polled 900 Oahu residents – 100 in each of the nine City Council districts. The sample was derived using QMark’s proprietary Random Digit Dialing software; the margin of error for a sample of 900 respondents is +/- 3.27 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

Here’s why we think our fellow Oahu residents are right on the money: QMark asked respondents if they felt rail transit was a “good investment” in the future of Honolulu. Using a four-point rating scale (4 = very good investment, 1 = very poor), here are the totals:

Whenever a poll returns 69 percent agreement on anything, it’s a landslide, and that’s the percentage of respondents in this scientifically conducted public opinion survey who believe the rail project will be a good investment for Oahu.

The City’s been saying that all along – and it’s especially understandable as Hawaii and the rest of the nation look for ways to get through the economic downturn.

So if you agree with that sentiment, you might take some pleasure in knowing that 7 out of 10 people you see on the street, in the office and everywhere else on Oahu see it that way, too.

Behind Rail Opinion Poll Numbers – Solid Support

The public opinion survey conducted for the City on residents’ attitudes about the Honolulu rail project has received minimal media coverage from what we’ve been able to find – at the bottom of one story on the Mayor’s “State of the Rail” address last week.

Here are some of its highlights based on a scientific survey of 900 Oahu residents by QMark, a respected Honolulu firm; the survey has a margin of error of +/- 3.27 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level:

• A majority (77 percent) of Oahu residents believe the island has a serious traffic congestion problem. Nineteen percent describe traffic as “mild” and two percent say there’s no problem; one percent is unsure. This high level of agreement about the seriousness of the problem was seen in all nine City Council districts, ranging from 73 to 84 percent.

• A two-thirds majority (60 percent) support the Honolulu rail project as it was described to them: “The City & County of Honolulu with approval from the voters of Oahu is moving forward with the development of a 20-mile elevated rail transit line that will connect West Oahu with downtown Honolulu and Ala Moana Center."

A little more than one-third of the respondents – 34 percent – strongly support it and 26 percent somewhat support it. Among the 37 percent who oppose the project, 21 percent strongly oppose and 16 percent somewhat suppose it. Three percent don’t know.

Comparing those who have strong feelings one way or the other, the strongly supportive group is more than half again as large as the strongly opposed group. At least half of the respondents in each City Council district support the project.

• Half of the poll’s respondents (49 percent) believe “rail transit is badly needed and is long overdue.” Another 27 percent believe “there is a need for transit but it is not immediate or pressing.” One in five Oahu residents (20 percent) believe “we do not need rail transit on Oahu.”

• Sixty-nine percent of the respondents believe rail transit is a good investment in the future of Honolulu – either very good (36 percent) or somewhat good (33 percent). Of the remainder, 12 percent say rail is a somewhat poor investment while 16 percent believe it is a very poor investment. Three percent are undecided. A solid majority of respondents in all nine City Council district respondents believe rail is a good investment; the lowest percentage among the districts is 60 percent.

• Nearly half (45 percent) of those polled say they expect to use the rail transit system at some point. Among current car commuters during peak morning or afternoon drive times, 42 percent say they’ll use rail once it is completed. Fifty-eight percent of bus riders who commute during those times say they’ll use rail. Combining car and bus commuters, 45 percent believe they’ll use rail at some point.

The Bottom Line: The poll has revealed strong support among Oahu residents for the Honolulu rail project – support that appears to have increased since 53 percent voted in favor of rail in last November’s election.

And Furthermore....

Here's one person's "poll" on Honolulu's plan to build its system elevated and above street congestion....to which we say, amen.

Editorial: Rail's Construction Is Closer than Ever

October has given way to November as seamlessly as ever, and it’s somewhat surprising to see how close we are to Thanksgiving and the holiday season. The best time of the year for many is right around the corner, and for rail enthusiasts, the best of times also are near.

The editorial in today’s Honolulu Advertiser makes somewhat the same point. Assessing where Honolulu’s rail project now stands, the editorial says “the project is closer than ever to becoming a reality” and that the Final Environmental Impact Statement will be issued soon:

“The good news is that by the time the final EIS finds its way to Gov. Linda Lingle's desk, a multitude of state and federal agencies — including the military, the National Park Service and state and federal historic preservation offices — would have already signed off on various components of the document. So there should be no surprises. The governor should be able to promptly accept the document, keeping the project's momentum.”

Completing all required regulatory and administrative steps would please a solid majority of Oahu residents, according to a public opinion poll released last week. Conducted in September by QMark Research, a respected local firm based in Honolulu, the scientific poll found that 60 percent of the 900 respondents either "strongly support" (34 percent) or "somewhat support" (26 percent) the Honolulu rail option as described to them – “a 20-mile elevated rail transit line that will connect West Oahu with downtown Honolulu and Ala Moana Center.”

As QMark notes, support for the project stands at near a two-to-one margin over opposition (37 percent). (The margin of error for a sample of this size is =/- 3.27 percentage points with a 90 percent confidence level.)

After all has been said and done, after the contentious fight over last year's rail vote and after all the debate over elevated and at-grade transit, the public clearly wants this project built as it's current planned.

Beware Monsters of Misinformation at Halloween

It’s wise to watch your step at the end of October. Ghosts and goblins are everywhere, eager to startle and shock you into giving up something of value – usually candy.

These Halloween monsters are harmless, but others out there are intent on scaring you into giving up something more valuable – your common sense. You find them in the Comments forum below many of the online stories in the Honolulu newspapers.

A current example is the Comment section containing reactions to the Mayor’s “State of the Rail” address. They reveal an extraordinary level of misinformation and misunderstanding about the Honolulu rail project.

An Example

Here’s a typical post by a rail opponent, followed by our response:

Rail does NOT benefit everybody for the following reasons:
1) You assume that EVERYONE lives at a TRAIN STATION. How do people take the Train to go to the BEACH, Costco, Sea Life park, etc. You need a CAR or BUS.
2) You assume AGAIN, that people can ride Rail EVERYWHERE. The Rail line DICTATES where you can go. Where you REALLY have to go- the rail DOESN'T.

Response: Both of the writer’s presumed assumptions are false. Nobody at the City has ever suggested rail will go “everywhere” or serve “everyone.” None of the successful rail systems the world over go everywhere and serve everyone. The writer has (intentionally or otherwise) misunderstood rail’s purpose, which is to be part of an overall multi-modal transportation system. Some commuters will ride it 10 or more times a week. Others will never ride it. And that’s OK. To call rail a failure because it won't take every rider to the doorstep of his or her destination – Costco, Sea Life Park or anywhere else – is reaching hard to find a reason to oppose the project.

The writer also has missed the point made repeatedly by the City that rail will benefit everybody by reducing traffic congestion by about 20 percent from what it would grow to without the system.

Ironically, most of the posts beneath the newspapers’ stories validate the need for the City’s rigorous public outreach efforts. Silence in the face of such extreme and misinformed accusations about the project would be exactly the wrong tactic.

Honolulu Mayor Accepts Groundbreaking Delay on Rail Project To Provide for a Complete Review

Mayor Mufi Hannemann at his State of the Rail address.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s major rail-oriented address yesterday was a summary of earlier false starts on grade-separated projects here that have given way to the recent four years of progress to finally build a system.

Announcing a willingness to delay groundbreaking “for at least a month” beyond the late-2009 scheduled event, Hannemann said the delay will “allow the appropriate federal, state, and community organizations to cross the T’s and dot the I’s to bring to fruition what House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair, Congress Jim Oberstar, has described as ‘the most exciting transportation project in the nation.’…”

“But while I’m willing to wait to address these environmental matters, the longer we delay, the greater the chance the money will go away. The longer we delay, the greater the economic disarray. I speak, of course, of some in the state Legislature and administration desperately searching for a way out of their budget woes and eyeing our transit tax revenues as an easy take-away.”

Avoiding the Kibosh

Hannemann alluded to a final legal hurdle the project must surmount – acceptance of the Final Environmental Impact Statement by Governor Linda Lingle, as required by law for government-driven projects:

“By rejecting the EIS, the state could put the kibosh on our work and end four years of Herculean effort. Governor Lingle said recently—in reference to the Superferry and other projects—that groups oppose things, but rarely offer alternatives. She said, and I quote, ‘There were consequences for the political leadership here not stepping up and coming out strong and saying, We need this. If there were steps that weren’t followed, let’s get that handled; but we’re for this alternative for our people.’”

As remarkable as it may seem, the Governor could kill the project by drawing an X across it, even after all the T’s and I’s have been crossed and dotted.

Maintaining the Legacy

It’s hard to imagine she’d do that. As things stand now, her legacy would appear to be the state’s relatively recent positioning vis-à-vis agreements and procedures to advance renewable energy development and reduce Hawaii’s crippling dependence on imported oil – something the rail project will help accomplish.

A refusal to accept the FEIS would put a different spin on the Lingle legacy – no doubt about it.

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.