Rail officials are considering doubling the capacity of Oahu’s future passenger trains to accommodate more people per stop — but the proposal would also halve the number of trains planned for the line.
Such a move would have 20 four-car trains running along the 20-mile route from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center, instead of the planned 40 two-car trains. Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation officials say the switch would likely improve overall customer service — even with slightly longer wait times — and save millions of dollars in project costs.
HART CEO Dan Grabauskas and Deputy Director for Systems Rainer Hombach floated the concept of reconfiguring Honolulu’s trains Thursday before a joint meeting of the HART board’s project oversight and finance committees. The two HART officials’ presentation came a little more than a week after they returned from viewing trains in Europe similar to Honolulu’s planned driverless system.
The industry trend, they said, is to implement longer trains with more rail cars. Grabauskas said the European operators told him passengers there get more frustrated by the trains being too small, overcrowded and difficult to board than they do by longer waits.
"People kind of questioned, Why am I getting on a two-car train when we have all this capacity?" he said Thursday, referring to those systems’ ability to handle larger trains. Honolulu’s system is being designed with 240-foot-long station tracks to handle four-car trains, Grabauskas said, even though the current plan is to operate two-car trains. "This had us scratching our heads and stroking our chins and thinking, This may be something we should consider here."
Running half the original number of driverless trains would likely increase wait times across the 21 Oahu stations. With 40 trains, rail commuters can expect to wait about three minutes in between, Grabauskas said. With 20 trains, that would likely become a wait of more than five minutes, he said.
Rail officials here will now have to weigh whether Oahu passengers would tolerate waiting several more minutes "if you knew that you could more likely get a seat, more likely to have space for your luggage or your wheelchair or your stroller," Grabauskas said after the meeting. "That’s the question."
The move would not require the city to increase its existing order for 80 train cars from Ansaldo Honolulu JV, which is contracted to deliver the city’s trains and the transit operating system, Grabauskas said. Whether the city opts to go with 40 trains or 20, either configuration would use 80 cars.
The idea would probably save millions of dollars to complete the $5.26 billion project, he added, although he didn’t have an estimate.
The savings would come from half of the 80 rail cars no longer requiring guidance systems, because under the new configuration two middle cars would basically serve as "wagons," Grabauskas said. HART would also save money by no longer having to buy two extra signaling systems designed for two- and three-car trains, he added.
AnsaldoBreda, one of two firms that form Ansaldo Honolulu JV, is examining the potential cost savings. "Even in our initial conversations they realize that this could be a potential multimillion-dollar reduction in our contract — to the good for us," Grabauskas said.
The city will then conduct its own analysis, and HART will consider whether to move ahead with the idea, he said.
