This is a make-it-work moment for the $11 billion-plus Honolulu rail project, and the mayor seems prepared to meet that moment — even if that means ending the line short of the Ala Moana terminus, at least for now.
A presentation outlining the city’s proposed financial recovery plan for the problem-plagued rapid-transit line was the focus of Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s State of the City address on Tuesday.
The mayor, city transportation officials and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation will submit the plan to the Federal Transit Administration by June 30, in the hopes that the FTA will approve it and release the remaining $744 million in federal subsidy dollars alloted to the project.
Because of an anticipated shortfall of $1.3 billion in financing the full 20-mile route from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center, the city is proposing a reduction in scope of the Full Funding Grant Agreement. The amended route would be 18.75 miles long and include only 19 of the planned 21 stations, ending at the Civic Center stop near Halekauwila and South streets.
Nobody comes away entirely happy with this idea — in particular those who developed and bought into the residential-retail towers that already have risen near the shopping center.
But city leaders would be making the logical case that a shorter line can still largely fulfill the project’s basic function, bringing riders to several key employment and business centers.
Federal officials ought to recognize that a working rail system would serve the public while the city pursues other ways to pay for the last leg to Ala Moana. What should make the argument more persuasive is that Blangiardi sees an extension to the originally envisioned end point — the University of Hawaii at Manoa — as the ultimate goal.
There are possible landmines in all of this, of course. The knottiest section of the line remains the congested Dillingham Boulevard corridor, where finding room to accommodate the massive guideway and all the utilities remains a design challenge.
It was at least encouraging to hear the mayor say the design work on utility relocation is completed for the remaining alignment, through Iwilei, Chinatown and Downtown to the Kakaako terminus. But the potential for more cost overruns is obvious to everyone who has watched every nasty bump this project has encountered along the way.
Further, there will be other steps that are crucial to building ridership. One is the construction of the Pearl Highlands park-and-ride garage, which is meant to make rail transit practical for commuters from Central Oahu and the North Shore, east- or westbound.
Blangiardi has correctly assessed that $330 million for 1,600 stalls is too high a price, so delaying that element until something more affordable can be designed and financed makes sense. But it’s still a critical piece in Oahu’s transit puzzle, and the city can’t lose sight of the need to fill that void.
Another key element in ridership: closing the gap between the Civic Center stop and destinations such as Ala Moana Center, Waikiki and UH-Manoa. The city Department of Transportation Services must reconfigure the bus system to include circulator shuttles that can bring riders to their end destinations conveniently. And that means circulation that is rapid, so that transferring between rail and bus won’t be too painful.
Construction of the HART system has been extraordinarily difficult. In virtually all cities, however, completion of an initial transit segment has generated momentum for future growth. This proposal for a realistic revision to the plan could enable that experience for Honolulu as well.
