Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation inexplicably continue to resist any Plan B to control runaway rail costs resulting from their miscalculations and misrepresentations.

Caldwell and HART CEO Daniel Grabauskas, they of the defunct “on time, on budget” promises, were studies in passive aggression at City Council hearings on the proposed five-year extension of the half-cent rail excise tax.

They doggedly stuck to new claims that the increase, which would add $1.6 billion to the $5.2 billion in local and federal funds already dedicated to rail, will be enough to finish the 20-mile line from Kapolei to Ala Moana Center.

That’s unlikely for a project first budgeted at $5.2 billion and now at $6.57 billion.

After building less than half the guideway, HART has already burned through a $1 billion contingency fund that was supposed to last the entire project, plus $1.3 billion in further overruns.

With the remaining guideway, 21 stations and 80 rail cars yet to be built and unresolved property and power costs, it strains credibility that there won’t be more overruns.

Even if the Council approves the $1.6 billion tax extension, there’s little cushion for further hitches.

So what’s Plan B?

Caldwell told the Council that if the tax extension isn’t enough to finish, the city will look for cost savings that don’t involve a shorter route or fewer stations.

Seriously? If there are such savings to be had, why not tap them now instead of waiting until another $1.6 billion is blown?

Grabauskas effectively told Council members that unless they approve the full funding HART seeks, he’ll notify federal overseers that the project is in default and shut it down.

Council Chairman Ernie Martin observed, “That’s not really a contingency plan; that’s basically throwing in the towel.”

Caldwell reinforced Grabauskas’ point by flying to Washington to extract a threat from the Federal Transit Administration to withhold funds if the Council doesn’t buckle to HART demands.

Rail was originally planned to go to the University of Hawaii, but was stopped at Ala Moana Center because city leaders said that was as far as $5.2 billion would take us and $5.2 billion was all we could afford.

We’re now $1.3 billion over what these people said we could afford; they owe us contingency plans to prevent endless bleeding.

They should start by working with our congressional delegates to gain federal flexibility and honestly studying a too-quickly-dismissed option to stop construction at Middle Street or Iwilei and feed commuters onto established city buses from there.

Let Caldwell and HART prove they can build and operate this segment with the competence and honesty lacking so far and then we can talk about investing more for a longer route.

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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.