Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Wednesday, January 22, 2025 69° Today's Paper


There’s actually a seventh option for rail

In regards to the front-page article, “Runaway Train” (Star-Advertiser, June 9), instead of six options for rail, there should be a seventh: Stop rail and rip out what has been installed. It would be far cheaper.

When the rail cost hits $10 billion within the next two years, we all will realize that Ben Cayetano was correct and that “Caldwell’s Folly” should never have been started.

With $10 billion we could have built a bus system that would have solved the transportation problem and been the envy of the world. But the construction industry, politicians and bureaucrats have carefully made rail too big to stop.

When the city runs out of money, the general excise tax will be raised and made permanent, and your property taxes also will be increased.

Sit there, prepare for bankruptcy, and see if my predictions come true.

Gary N. Sparks

Waipahu

Air bags, like seat belts, intended to save lives

Believe it or not, government regulation serves a purpose. Leaving it up to individuals to decide whether or not to have an air bag in their car makes no sense whatsoever (“Mandate caused air bag problems,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, June 7).

What about seat belts? How many lives have been saved since seat belts became mandatory? How many people would pay for these safety features if they thought they could save a few hundred dollars when they purchased a new car?

What about drivers licenses? Maybe we should do away with those, too. Even with the present regulations, tens of thousands of people die each year in automobile accidents in the U.S. Do we want to add to that number?

Many years ago, my 19-year-old brother was in a fatal car accident. He and two of the other three people involved died; the only one to survive was wearing a seat belt.

Thomas Welch

Hawaii Kai

Kudos to company for restoring News Building

I’m so elated that Hawaiian Dredging has taken the leap of faith and started major renovation of that beloved 1929 News Building at 605 Kapiolani Blvd.

I was an employee of the paper for many years and was just heartbroken to see the building so forlornly in disrepair while construction grew around it. Once again, there will be a hubbub of activity for Hawaiian Dredging’s corporate offices and will bring life back into those halls.

The work in progress is now hidden by a caramel-colored sheeting. But every so often the wind plays with it, and I can glimpse what it is hiding. I can’t wait to see the unveiling.

Thank you, Hawaiian Dredging, for saving a piece of architecture and history for generations to come.

Linda Iverson

Moiliili

Writer on rape case a real man who gets it

I’ve never commented on an article before but feel compelled to now.

I want to thank Rex Huppke for his commentary, “What the Stanford University rape case can teach our sons” (Star-Advertiser, June 9).

Finally, something worth reading from a real man who gets it. I truly hope other good fathers will take his advice and teach their sons well about how to treat other living beings and to be responsible for their actions.

Meredith Leigh Kimitsuka

Kailua

78 responses to “There’s actually a seventh option for rail”

  1. FrankGenadio says:

    The best seventh option is conversion of the steel wheels guideway for urban magnetic levitation (maglev). This will enable not only finishing the 20-mile plan but also adding rail extensions to West Kapolei, UH-Manoa, and Waikiki while staying within the existing budget. It will pay dividends in coming years through saving billions of dollars in operations and maintenance as well as increasing rail ridership and taking thousands of vehicles off the island’s congested roads. Anything short of that will make Honolulu the “poster child” for poor rail planning and management. Is there a mayoral candidate out there with vision and fortitude or will the taxpayers be left with picking up increasing cost burdens by trying to “stay the course” with obsolescent technology?

    • Kalaheo1 says:

      I admire your commitment to salvaging this mess and feel like you have been treated shamefully by the insiders who used your enthusiasm but ignored your ideas.

      I also want to keep our resident rail troll from hijacking your comment.

      • Keolu says:

        I agree. Cut our losses and stop now. The city is like a gambler with an addiction. Unless the money is cut off, the city will keep losing it until the money iscut off.

        • awahana says:

          HART is too little, too late. Self driving cars will be the dominant transportation solution in due time, and rail will never be what politicians promised. Stop the loss, lower the taxes back down, and tear it down, or leave it as a monument to government waste, like they did in S. Korea.

          http://grist.org/infrastructure/2011-04-04-seoul-korea-tears-down-an-urban-highway-life-goes-on/

        • SHOPOHOLIC says:

          Sorry but I ain’t putting all the eggs in that “self driving” basket yet. Or for a long time.

        • sailfish1 says:

          awahana – what good are “self-driving cars” if we don’t have highway space for them to drive on?

          And, with more self-driving cars”, there will be more cars on the road – people who don’t like to drive will jump in their “self-driving cars”. Maybe, even people without drivers licenses will be riding in these cars.

      • NanakuliBoss says:

        Sparks, Quitting is not an option. If you have difficulties in school, sports or life, you cannot say ” I Quit”!. It’s like DIVORCE in marriage. A more stable society works out solutions. In the Military or War you don’t Quit. It’s not AMERICAN.

        • Kalaheo1 says:

          Doing stupid things isn’t American either.

          Would you consider someone decided NOT to bet their kids college fund on a hand of blackjack after losing 20 hands straight, “a quitter”? Well… you probably would, but I wouldn’t.

          But this current rail project has played out like a compulsive gambler chasing lost money, and there you are, standing next to poor sap, whispering in his ear “go all in, go all in!”

          We gave HART and Mayor Caldwell EVERYTHING they asked for, and then we gave them another BILLION and a half, and what have got? A pile of broken promises and a project in such disarray that the FTA is holding back $500,000,000 until they can demonstrate that they got their act together.

          I’m sure your position as a concrete contractor has nothing to do with you enthusiasm for unbridled spending on rail, does it?

        • Kalaheo1 says:

          Doing nonsensical, self defeating things isn’t American either.

          Would you consider someone decided NOT to bet their kids college fund on a hand of blackjack after losing 20 hands straight, “a quitter”? Well… you probably would, but I wouldn’t.

          But this current rail project has played out like a compulsive gambler chasing lost money, and there you are, standing next to poor sap, whispering in his ear “go all in, go all in!”

          We gave HART and Mayor Caldwell EVERYTHING they asked for, and then we gave them another BILLION and a half, and what have got? A pile of broken promises and a project in such disarray that the FTA is holding back $500,000,000 until they can demonstrate that they got their act together.

          I’m sure your position as a concrete contractor has nothing to do with you enthusiasm for unbridled spending on rail, does it?

        • hailama says:

          Stop the rail and tear it down….plain and simple. white people started this crap I agree the with the guy..yeeehaaaw..with your reply I could careless..

        • NanakuliBoss says:

          Concrete contractor? Where do you get this assumption from? Come clean, do you live in Kalaheo Kauai?

    • inlanikai says:

      Option 8: Vote everyone out of office and start fresh.

    • dragoninwater says:

      You and that maglev sales pitch again! Please stop pestering us with your maglev agenda. No single city is the USA has maglev and probably never will anytime soon. Go sell you maglev idea to India, they still ride traditional old school choo-choo trains and would benefit from maglev bullet trains.

    • A_Reader says:

      FrankGenadio: I think we earned that distinction from the start of the debacle, “Poster Child” for poor rail planning and management”. Tear it down.

  2. keonimay says:

    Hawaii can not solve its traffic issues, any more. The Rail is just another avenue of transportation. Hawaii once had a railroad and trolley car service. Hawaii politics makes anything expensive. The original route (early 1970s) of the planned Rail was from Kapiolei (unnamed then, because cane fields) to Waikiki. It was planned as Waikiki 2.

    H1 lead to H2, which lead to H3, and will one day lead to H4. No one seems to remember what was said at all of those hearings. I was around when there were many dirt roads and no street lights.

  3. Kalaheo1 says:

    “Stop rail and rip out what has been installed. It would be far cheaper.” Gary N. Sparks, Waipahu

    Mr Sparks,
    Thank you for taking the time to write and state what should be blindingly obvious to anyone following the this rail disaster. It is far better to cut our losses now than shackle Oahu with this unaffordable gift to developers and other insiders. Even if it were finished on time and on budget (and that ship has certainly sailed, despite assurances from Kirk “on time and on budget Caldwell) it still doesn’t serve the families of the west side, nor go to UH or Waikiki.

    The developers, construction interests, Caldwell’s people and other insiders have gotten billions out of this and should be satisfied now and willing to walk away, unless their greed is boundless – which it appears it might be.

    I just wish your letter had been published on Sunday, the most read day of the week than Saturday, the least read day. Thank you.

    • kekelaward says:

      And you know there was a reason it was printed when it was.

      As I’ve said before, the SA is a huge part of the reason this beautiful place is so skrewed up.

      • inverse says:

        You got that right with Kirk paying a hundred thousand or even more in online advetising revenue to SA. Every single day Kirk’d banner is on the SA homepages and the cost for that is easily many thousands per day. You better believe the editorial manager for online content AND posters opinions on Kirk is closely watched and if necesary either removed or they will repost basically the same online story and all of the previous comments will ‘dissapear’ in an old linked webpage.

    • hybrid1 says:

      “Stop rail and rip out what has been installed. It would be far cheaper.” Gary N. Sparks, Waipahu.

      “HART hasn’t yet issued the two big contracts to complete rail’s final 10 miles”

      The first 10 miles ends at Aloha Stadium. The rail, if kept, should end at Aloha Stadium where there are enough open parking spaces for a major Bus transit center and for many passenger cars (for commuter transfers to/from the buses/rail) during the week day when the stadium parking are unused.

      The practical and best 7th option is to convert the rail guide way to a reversible 2-lane HOV(2) Reversible freeway from Kapolei to Aloha Stadium for less than $4 Billion already collected via GET.

      The reversible freeway can carry 17,000 commuters per hour (200 express buses and 1800 vehicles per hour on two lanes) versus 3,000 rail commuters per hour. This option deletes rail stations, rail cars, utilities relocation, land/building acquisitions, rail security, rail power plant, rail O&M (100 million per year), etc.

      New buses are 80% funded by the Feds and would cost the city about $200,000 per bus or $40 million for 200 new buses. HART plans to purchase 80 rail cars at $1.2 million each for $96 million (Oahu Taxpayer funded).

  4. kekelaward says:

    IRT Gary N. Sparks: Thanks for your letter. Your option is the best and the least expensive for the citizens of the county and state. The pro-rail side is trying their best to under report or ignore the huge O & M monthly costs and the cost of building and operating the non existent power plant. Even if the rail were to be stopped at Aloha Stadium, all the other hidden costs are going to bankrupt the city.

    • dragoninwater says:

      The huge O & M monthly costs will raise our property taxes by NO LESS THAN 9% according to HART. The 9% was estimated back when the proposals were still in the works before this monstrosity was even close to the $8 billion and climbing price tag, the new estimates are hovering close to 40% property tax increases for everyone!!!

  5. ukuleleblue says:

    Tearing down the rail structure already built is wasteful and should be unthinkable. We should now just achieve better transparency and get rail finished the right way.

    • paradisetax says:

      Tear it down now!

    • inlanikai says:

      What is wasteful is what has already taken place.

    • BluesBreaker says:

      Rail will be finished. It will exceed ridership projections by 2030. it will be extended to UH Manoa and other areas (although perhaps in the form of light rail). In 15 years, people will wonder who could ever have objected to all the benefits it delivered. This scenario has been repeated in city after city across the country. It will happen here, too. 🙂

      • kekelaward says:

        How is it going to exceed projections by 2030? Will they be outlawing cars in the county?

        Do you know something they haven’t told the rest of us?

      • inlanikai says:

        You also said Rail would be built on time and for $5.3 billion. You have no credibility.

      • islandsun says:

        Fire Dan Grabauskas now!

        • Kalaheo1 says:

          I’d say kekelaward and inlanikai about covered it.

          I’d like add that every projection, claim, and estimate that HART has promised has collapsed when tested.

          Why do you think their ridership projection for 14 years from now is one thing they got right 5 years ago? Surely you’re not that gullible nor can you believe readers here are.

        • SHOPOHOLIC says:

          Firing Grabby will only bring in another carpetbagging opportunist. Just END at the stadium already.

      • Keolu says:

        “It will exceed ridership projections by 2030”

        Total BS. Not a single rail project in the US met their ridership projections. Most came in at less than 50% of their projections.

        But keep sipping that kool aid.

    • mitt_grund says:

      Easy for ub ub boo to say, but the hart-less seem to be stumbling all over themselves as to what to do, and the clothesless emperor cladwell has stopped parroting his “building rail better” mantra, as he sets his eyes on his first full term under the shibai claim of having done more to restore Honolulu’s infrastructure: roads, sewers, and parks, than any mayor has in their combined terms. Yup, another spend spend spend Dem using OPM (Other Peoples Money) to make themselves look good without improving a d**n thing. Just a lot of meaningless waha, chutzpah, and smoke & mirrors. All to help enrich political cronies, developers, contractors, union heads, prp, and, yes, shills like ub ub boo and baby boo boo.

    • dragoninwater says:

      I would agree that tearing down the existing pillars and rail would be a needless additional waste. Demolition and disposal costs are also very expensive especially given how much there is. Best to just convert it to a jogging and bike trail or even a dedicated road for those that want to ride more eco-friendly vehicles like mopeds, scooters motorcycles across town without them needing to worry about getting crushed by cars.

      • SHOPOHOLIC says:

        Then we can FINALLY brag!! WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE jogging & bike path!!! YEAH!!! We’re #1 !!!!

        • dragoninwater says:

          I can envision future SA articles in the coming months as something like this…

          “In an inadvertent twist to the failed Honolulu rail, wealthy sheikh’s in the Middle East actually envied Honolulu’s $2 billion dollar 50 foot high stunning ocean view jogging trails and hired ex-mayor Caldwell, Gabby and FrankGenadio to actually one-up Honolulu and build themselves a full $10 billion dollar maglev jogging trail!” haaaaaaaa 😉

      • hybrid1 says:

        Why tear it down?

        Converting the guide to a two lane reversible is similar to the DOT proposal to widen the zipper lane from one lane to two lanes at zero cost and will get you additional capacity of 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane.

    • Keolu says:

      The rail should be torn down and HART should hire grabauskas,wiliki and ukuleleblue.

    • Kalaheo1 says:

      ukuleleblue write: “Tearing down the rail structure already built is wasteful and should be unthinkable. ”

      Would you say that is more or less wastefu than paying millions for luxury high rise office space with reserved indoor parking for HART? More or less wasteful the millions spent on PR, railroad shills, and fake “concerned citizens” like California resident Doug Carlson? Would you like me to go on? Cause I got a lot of them.

      What could possibly be more wasteful than continuing down this awful path that HART and Oahu is on now?

      Now isn’t it time you finally tell us where you live on the mainland and what your connection is this mess of a rail project?

      • SHOPOHOLIC says:

        As Keolu said above…this rail has become like an out-of-control gambler looking for every way to feed the habit.

        • wiliki says:

          Rail is the solution to our traffic congestion problems.

        • Windward_Side says:

          “Rail is the solution to our traffic congestion problems.” The City and the FTA themselves disagrees with you. You continue to lose what little credibility you have.

  6. WizardOfMoa says:

    We were the ones trying to stop the rail from day one but supporting Cayetano and his colleagues! People joked, belittled and refused to listen to him! Well, it’s good to know people finally realized the stupidity of it all! No one to blame but the majority who voted for rail by installing the present mayor and his people!

  7. soundofreason says:

    “When the city runs out of money, the general excise tax will be raised and made permanent, and your property taxes also will be increased.”>> And isn’t it ironic that the SAME politicians who “sympathize” with the rising cost of housing here are the VERY same people causing it to go higher.

  8. soundofreason says:

    “Believe it or not, government regulation serves a purpose. Leaving it up to individuals to decide whether or not to have an air bag in their car makes no sense whatsoever “>>> THEN there’s also the issue of the non-Hawaii Kai dwellers who are having to dole out thousands of dollars for when their air bags fail at inspections. Not everyone can “afford” every “nicety” of safety option invented and later mandated via back room govt deals.

  9. CKMSurf says:

    Why isn’t Grabby and the HART gang being prosecuted for defrauding the public, along with Quirky, Mufi and his mafia minions? We were definitely lied to, and surely, as Hanabusa said, the ‘experts’ doing rail should have known these problems existed before they reluctantly surfaced in the press.

    I agree with the sentiment to can the rail. $8 billion going forward, including $2 billion in present value of unrecoverable O&M over 30 years. Versus $2.5 or so billion to shut it down, excluding the $2.1 billion already spent. Numbers are still in favor of shutting it down now.

  10. wrightj says:

    Can’t stop building the rail now; they’ve put too much money into it already.

  11. WizardOfMoa says:

    Curiosity nothing more, nothing less. What happen to some of the regular Posters before SA changed its format? Like Loquaciousone, maneko neke, mikethenovice, etc. they were interesting and the Loquaciousone quite funny!

  12. ukuleleblue says:

    Better to spend more and have something we need and can use. If we tear down rail now, we spent $billions and have nothing to show for it. Tearing down is out of the question. We need to stay the course and build rail as planned to achieve our objectives for better transportation for the future. Mitigate the cost as best we can and when we look back decades from now we will have made the right decision. No one complains about H-3 and BART now. Seattle’s light rail might not now be meeting the projected ridership that was desired but no one is wishing it wasn’t built. The smart thing for us is to keep going. We have a strong economic base here with rich investors who will never let our government go bankrupt or let the best place in the world go down.

    • wiliki says:

      The latest HART projections are about a 20% increase on the previous 5.4 billion. That doesn’t seem too much to me. I hope they can work something out with the feds. Perhaps the feds can fUnd the difference.

      • Kalaheo1 says:

        The Feds saw this coming from a mile away and already said “NO!”

        And you clearly don’t have any idea how much money a billion dollars is.

        Every billion is an extra $1000.00 from every man ,woman, child, and infant on Oahu.

      • Wazdat says:

        We started at 3 billion and are now approaching 8 Billion that is WAY over a 100% increase. Time to stop LYING !

        • SHOPOHOLIC says:

          8 billion is being CONSERVATIVE. With the clowns in Hawaii, it’ll surely reach 10++bil

  13. wiliki says:

    Free preschool education for needy kids.

    • Kalaheo1 says:

      What is in it for you, liar?

      I noticed you lost interest in spamming against Ernie Martin once he decided to not run against your boy Caldwell.

  14. chacha555 says:

    tear down what has already been built. funny going cost maybe couple billions to tear down. where we going get the money.might as well use that money to finish the rail.

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