It happens every time a rail project is built in the U.S.: People who just don’t understand that the human race will not survive if we all continue to drive gas-powered cars complain about the fact that rail transit is subsidized (“Let’s see true subsidy costs of operating rail,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Jan. 25). The farebox recovery ratio is never 100%, nor should it be, because everyone benefits anytime someone takes the train instead of driving.

Yet somehow the massive subsidy of driving is never brought up ($368 million per year, according to the state website). Both kinds of transportation are subsidized, but only one continues to pour carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Regardless of how poorly the new rail system has been managed (and starting it at the west end instead of at Ala Moana was a massive blunder, resulting in poor ridership until it reaches the airport and downtown), we have to build it. So stop pretending that a model in which everyone drives an individual gas-powered car is somehow efficient or less subsidized.

As Ann Landers used to say, wake up and smell the coffee.

Christopher Moylan

Manoa

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