Everything seems to be on the table now in the efforts to rescue the city’s deficit-plagued rail project. If in taking that approach the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) can find its way to a realistic solution, that would be a welcome shift.
The realistic solution is not the bluntly expedient one, however, and it does appear that Mayor Rick Blangiardi is aware of that. Blangiardi is rightly advocating against any suggestion that the project end at Middle Street, joined by several members of the City Council.
The correct conclusion: Simply pulling the plug in order to close the yawning $3.5 billion hole in the project budget would leave Oahu with an expensive system that serves too few people adequately. That would defeat the whole purpose of a project residents have needed urgently for years: an alternative to the grueling commute between west and east sides of the island.
At a minimum, the 20-mile rail line needs to come within walking distance of downtown Honolulu, where many people work or have business to do. And it at least needs to be designed to enable a future continuation of the system to Ala Moana Center and to the University of Hawaii-Manoa, originally conceived as the final end point for a truly workable transit system.
Finally, there must be funds appropriated, once the city has weathered its current pandemic-induced fiscal crisis, to enable an interim opening for rail. As soon as possible — if not this budget cycle, then the very next — this project needs to start fulfilling its purpose, even if only in partial measure.
On Friday, in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” webcast, Blangiardi signaled his willingness to accept a system ending short of Ala Moana Center. The mayor added that he will meet with the Federal Transit Administration in July or August to discuss amended financial plans for the project, including any change in the terminus.
The city and HART have a strong case to make: The coronavirus pandemic put the state’s tax collections into a tailspin, including the surcharges to the general excise and transient accommodations taxes that are the principal sources of revenue for the rail project.
That should open doors in Washington, D.C., for renegotiating the scope of the project, and its financing, with the FTA. As will a united, problem-solving front between HART and the city administration, which had not been the case last year under previous leaders.
Back in Honolulu, among the problems for HART to overcome is construction through the congested Dillingham Boulevard corridor. Contractors relocating utilities on that critical stretch have been stymied by the lack of adequate space to safely accommodate the various systems underground.
Interim HART CEO Lori Kahikina is considering shifting the rail elevated guideway to the mauka side of Dillingham Boulevard, avoiding part of the utilities problem, an idea that merits full exploration. The authority should preserve this area’s alignment, if at all possible, to serve the communities and Honolulu Community College, an important destination.
The last four miles of the rail project are seen as the most difficult and expensive, costs having ballooned to nearly $12.5 billion. The system, initially pegged to be running already, now won’t be finished until March 2031.
Blangiardi has pushed back against his predecessor’s plans to start limited service this year, from Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. This is rational, since reopening of the stadium itself is delayed.
But the mayor should lose no more time in preparing for such a soft launch in 2022-23, so that the city can gain experience operating the long-promised multimodal transit system. Residents deserve to have rail becoming a reality. They need the service and have paid the original price for it, many times over.
