Honolulu’s rail-transit financial and planning disaster is not like the other overbudget rail projects in other U.S. cities, despite some claims that Honolulu’s deficit isn’t all that different from projects underway elsewhere. There are important, overwhelming reasons why we are in far worse shape than folks in other cities running over budget on rail, and these reasons extend from current construction to future operations.
The percentage budget increase for our Honolulu rail transit project already admitted to by Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation management — and this is on the “easy” portion of the line and not even addressing known issues such as costly relocation of power lines — is substantially more than most projects noted in the recent article, “On the Same Track” (Star-Advertiser, Aug. 7).
Baltimore’s rail cost is increasing by 17 percent, Los Angeles’ by 16 percent and New York’s by 38 percent, while Honolulu’s cost increase is already recognized at 58 percent and sure to go higher.
As for Boston, where
project costs have risen by 126 percent — a higher percentage increase than Honolulu’s — our costs may well become “competitive” with that increase if and when the rail starts crossing our residential and business areas.
Honolulu is getting substantially less of our expenses covered by federal funds than any of the other noted projects. Bringing federal funds to Honolulu was often cited as a reason for, or at least a benefit from, the rail-transit project — but
Honolulu is spending a much higher percentage of local money for our rail-transit project than any of the other projects.
Honolulu is paying for
81 percent (and climbing with every cost increase) of our project — whereas the other cities are paying 57 percent (Los Angeles), 67 percent (Boston), 70 percent (Baltimore), and 74 percent (New York) of costs.
But the most important reason why this project is such a total financial disaster for Honolulu is buried in one last comparison: Population figures drawn from the U.S. Census data show that Honolulu residents are expected to shoulder $8,310.69 in project costs per person — every man, woman, and child here. This is 5.5 times the per-person project cost in Boston, 7.75 times the per-person project cost in Baltimore, 11.74 times the per-person project cost in New York, and a staggering 54.53 times the per-person project cost in Los Angeles.
How many folks in Honolulu are really ready to take on more than 50 times the per-person cost of supporting the rail project in L.A., or even 5.5 times the per-person cost of supporting the rail project in Boston?
The bottom line: Even without the operating costs — which can be expected to show similar per-person comparisons — there is no way residents of Honolulu can afford this archaic steel-wheel-on-steel-rail transit project. Not unless you’re among those who think the way to improve Oahu is to bring in maybe six to 10 times more people just to pay for the rail.
Stop it now.
Henry Bennett, of East Honolulu, is a publishing professional who has worked with local academic/research institutions.
