Rising rail chaos bodes ill for us all
The planners of the Oahu rail system are looking ahead to the day when a partial opening of the service will give riders a chance to acclimate to rail, and give the operators a means to work out the bugs.
Although not required under the federal grant for the rail system, a partial opening would be worthwhile — if only the project could move in that direction with fewer fits and starts.
Future riders of the Honolulu rail system also need to have confidence that the officials directing its completion are all on the same page about the process, or at least communicating more clearly about it.
Instead, there’s breakdown, the public wondering and worrying where things are headed.
On Thursday, City Council Chairman Ernie Martin called on the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) board chairman and chief executive officer to resign, pointing to anticipated cost increases pegged to power-line clearances that he said should have been headed off.
In an exchange fraught with political tension — Martin is contemplating a run for mayor — he urged Mayor Kirk Caldwell to join in the call.
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This is just the latest fault line in a project whose support is fragmenting, just as HART, the semiautonomous agency overseeing construction, confronts the most challenging segments of the line.
A recent round of upheaval started over recent indications from HART that it has returned to its original proposal to start the partial service between East Kapolei and the Aloha Stadium station.
Months earlier, HART had considered holding off on the partial service until it could get riders to the Middle Street Station.
Reverting to the original Aloha Stadium plan is less than optimal. Disembarking from the train at Middle Street would allow for a much better-supported transition. Middle Street is already a major bus hub, so commuters could more smoothly complete their journey through this stop.
The Aloha Stadium stop is itself a less practical end-point; other than on game day, there’s not much within easy reach.
So the city and HART must work together to redirect additional key bus routes to make stops there, creating a mini-hub for the area, including circulator shuttles for nearby destinations such as Pearl Harbor.
Even if the switch back to Aloha Stadium is not ideal, the reason for it was defensible. The stadium stop represents the last of the first nine stations, Phase 1 in the project.
The Middle Street station is part of the 12-station Phase 2, but it’s the last in a grouping that now is not expected to be complete until only months before the entire line is ready to open.
The contracts for this group of four stations — Pearl Harbor, Airport, Lagoon Drive and Middle Street — and for the remaining eight to the Ala Moana Center end terminus, are expected to be complex, with work on the segments overlapping.
That complexity, given the hot construction market, is anticipated to increase the already skyrocketing costs. HART officials acknowledged new misgivings that the recently approved extension of the funding mechanism — Oahu’s 0.5 percent general excise tax surcharge — would cover the bills.
HART spokesman Bill Brennan said the agency is coordinating with the city on making the partial rail segment practical, with bus connections and a park-and-ride lot.
But prospects for such coordinated planning and rosy outcome are quickly receding amid all the conflict.
More of that lies ahead. Whether the city or HART takes charge of rail operations is at the center of competing City Charter amendment proposals; the coming debates on rail governance will put this clash on prominent display.
HART officials insist that they have kept the city in the loop. But Mike Formby, director of the city Department of Transportation Services, maintained in an interview with the Star-Advertiser that he didn’t learn of the change in plans over the Aloha Stadium opening until reading about it in the paper.
Reports of this dysfunction just adds to the strain taxpayers feel right now, and it’s the last thing they need. The price tag on the state’s largest public works project is past the $6 billion mark and rising, with the most complicated part of the work still looming.
What people need to see and hear is that those at the top are collaborating. But the noise coming through now conveys precisely the opposite.
70 responses to “Rising rail chaos bodes ill for us all”
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Fools!!!! This lunacy is costing more than the new Panama Canal, a project that requires REAL engineering and REAL work. FOOLS!
agree. And all fo this was predictable and preventable as Governor Cayetano tried to tell people. The route never made any sense and still does not.
Make no mistake. Grabauskas is incompetent based on his past performance and by what we know about this project. We need someone who will assess the mess and give the public an honest estimate of what it will cost to finish the project.
Most people will reach appoint where enough is enough. The city has become like a gambling addict that will only stop when their last dollar is lost.
Which means when they run out of money, we the people will be out of money. But hey, they’ll just sell more worthless bonds.
Grabauskas is making a fortune. He’s no fool, he’s just dishonest, as is everyone else pretending to support this insanity.
Horner, who was a total bust at the Board of education, is a bust at HART. Who elected that incompetent?
It makes total-sense to those who benefitted from the sales of their “newly-acquired lands” at 20x’s their original investment (cash-on-cash = 50%/annum and IRR = 80%+..).
Ask to see the ORIGINAL LAND APPRAISALS and compare against resale prices… “MOOFIOSO”, “KIRK”, and many known other notoriously-nefarious “profiteer’s”…
RUSTY THE HATED SCREECHING RAIL REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN. Now even those who voted for it now want it stopped. Duh. We have told them all along it was the wrong route, the wrong route & the cost would Get 8-15 Billion if they continued. The lies,
deception and bribery should not be forgotten and those involved need to be prosecuted if nothing else for STUPIDITY & MALFEASANCE.
The entire state will pay for the Graff these individuals have committed. Names like Caldwell, Nester Garcia, Wayne Yoshioka, Romy Cachola, MUFEE DA BULLY, Peter Carlyle, Breene Harimoto, Ikaika Anderson, Ernie Martin & new to the tale is Kimberly(NO SHOW) Pine and Branden Elephante. they should all be forced to resign or be prosecuted by the feds
The taxpayers should insist that the mayor stop the rail at Aloha Stadium. The rail cost can be capped at less than $4 Billion at the Aloha Stadium terminus. The shorter route would allow the GET surcharge extension to be cancelled and would avoid an additional 9% property tax increase for train O&M.
With all the parking available at Aloha Stadium, it’s the ideal location for a “park and ride” and a major bus transit station. Express buses could operate from the Stadium to downtown and beyond during peak hour traffic ( 3 hours am and 3 hours pm) with departures every five to ten minutes.
For the rest of the day when the rail will be running virtually empty, the buses can be run every 30 to 60 minutes.
Taxpayers want to avoid higher costs for rail through downtown which would escalate exponentially, requiring property and GET to rise again and again!!
We should vote for rail again, this time blank votes don’t count and simple language” Rail yes or no.
In addition No rail to Ala Moana Center. Rail from Waianae to UH only. They’re now saying it may never go to UH.But if it does we want another 10B+/ It already will be 20B$ not 6B(another lie). They won’t tell you about the need to build another Power plant, just for the train. Cost: 1/2 B$. AND that doesn’t include redoing the grid for all of Oahu to accommodate it(who knows what that will cost).
The true purpose of rail was to help the sagging economy during the downturn. Now that the economy is booming, the right decision is to kill rail since its true purpose is irrelevant. Rail was never, ever, meant to reduce vehicular traffic and its own studies admit that traffic in the near future will be worse with rail.
Agree. It never made any sense to take the rail to no man;s land at Ala Moana. The rail will be a nightmare downtown as well. Wrong route, wrong technology, dishonest sale of the rail by Mufi and no hope to get out of the mess.
No surprises here. Just look at how the final price tag of the Boston ‘Big Dig’ project became (190% over budget). Oh, and the person in charge of that project was *drum roll* Dan Grabauskas! And let’s not forget about the fatal ceiling collapse, leaks, and the ‘Ginsu guardrails’. I wonder what ‘features’ are in store for Honolulu’s train system?
It’s unfair for Council Chair Martin to scapegoat Grabauskas when anyone with a brain knew from the start that the original cost projections for building DaRail were seriously underestimated. As they continue to be, along with ridership forecasts, and completion dates.
Scapegoat? That person with a brain was Grabauskas who has known all the problems all along. He and some at HART including the present administration are the goats. lol
“the present administration are the goats.” Actually, better referred to as “Kids”–feeding off of “Nannie-Rail’s” teats…
Grabauskas came in late on the big dig.
This is an editorial? It reads more like a playbook for HART to follow in order to keep tap-dancing around the tulips and razzle-dazzle the public into thinking the roses will bloom in the summer. The only thing the editor left out was a big parade led by 76 trombones with Caldwell playing Professor Harold Hill using his unique ability to help the people of Honolulu “visualize’ their children riding on the magic rail while gleefully paying off the bonds for the rest of their lives. Feeling the Bern yet?
“What the people need to hear” is that this project will end – now. Clearly there is neither the competence nor the desire to plan, negotiate and coordinate properly by HART, nor the City. It is clear that both parties want the other to fail for political reasons. Key pieces of financial and project information are kept from the other party. To what end? Ego, and that old saying that information is power.
“Rising rail chaos bodes ill for us all”
For the Star Advertiser to pretend that this rail mess wasn’t completely predictable and inevitable is insulting.
Along with wiliki and ukuleleblue, The Star Advertiser gleefully cheerleaded this mess as it buried stories unflattering to rail and that hinted at it’s underlying corruption while writing glowing editorials about the wonders of rail and the need for higher taxes to pay for PRP’s insatiable excesses.
The latest”no one could have possibly foreseen these unexpected conditions?” Phone poles!
True.
Couldn’t have said it better. The Star Advertiser needs to own up that it is greatly responsible for this mess. Build it to Middle Street and end it there. Don’t let the rail bankrupt the city and state like a similar project has done to Puerto Rico!
This project is bleeding tax payer money. It is over budget, behind schedule and they come for more money just a couple of months after getting an excise tax extension. I say kill it now before it kills our finances.
Wiliki and Ukuleleblue’s comments are pure comedy. I wonder if anyone actually believes the drivel they post on this forum?
What about your drivel? Fire Keolu.
wiliki, name one thing I’ve posted that’s drivel?
I can name yours:
1. Rail is already paid for
2. Rail has a solid financial plan
3. Our kids have no future without a rail system
4. Grabby (who might be fired for incompetence) is doing an outstanding job.
Flatulence.
These are truth.
LOL, wiliki believes his drivel is truth. Sorry you you are delusional or you have dementia.
WOW IT SEEMS LIKE THE TRUTH NEEDS MODERATION BY SA
It’s always been SA’s primary-purpose. It’s called “Yellow-Journalism” (Politically-Maligned (..to Brainwash “The Masses”..; and, heretofore–they’ve been successful. Remember they originally promoted “The Rail”)).
Onions at Middle St.market is $.99 a pound today.
Yup SA is just a much a problem here. Their board members will personally profit by the rail running to Howard Hughes Kakaako. SA knew this was a BS project but they helped deceive the public for profit. Thanks SA.
“The contracts for this group of four stations — Pearl Harbor, Airport, Lagoon Drive and Middle Street — and for the remaining eight to the Ala Moana Center end terminus, are expected to be complex, with work on the segments overlapping.”
Just imagine the traffic when they start working in the city corridor on 12 different stations at the same time.
And the inevitable litigation associated with the City stealing property under the guise of eminent domain will likely prolong the completion date into the mid 20’s.
That’s another problem. If people will ride shuttle buses to the rail stations, why in the world do we need 21 stations for a 20 mile rail route?
All we needed was about 5 or 6 stations and some of those could have just been rail platforms for people to board and get off the train.
That’s too long a ride in an urban area.
Pressed the wrong button. Also there will be massive traffic jams at The Rail stations because with fire stations each will be serving about 100000 people.
Wiliki with more shameless lies. 5 stations will have 100,000 people? Talk about telling some tall tales.
So you’re actually saying nearly half of Oahu will be going to use the rail each day?
Do you have any savings? I’d like to personally wager you $100,0000 that there will be nowhere near 500,000 rail passengers on any given day.
100,000 live in the vacinity of the station. What are you thinking? Fire Keolu.
Wiliki is full of s h * t. If there were 5 stations, none of them would be serving 100,000 people on a single day.
This should have been handled by the private sector from the start. Government does nothing well.
The private sector was very active in pulling the wool over the eyes of the public. The FBI should be handling it from here.
I think he meant a for profit rail that would not be funded by tax payers
“Rising rail chaos bodes ill for us all”>>> Mainly because you “all” voted for it expecting something less than the chaos that was predictable.
Not sure there was ever a vote for or against rail. Just what kind. Anyhow, the amount of people against rail has increases a hundred fold now. I always thought they would drain the taxpayer dry by the time it got to Pearl Ridge. Getting close. What an ugly mess this has become.
You’re right on that voting issue.
“To refresh your memory, the question put to voters in 2008: “Shall the powers, duties and functions of the city, through its director of transportation services, include establishment of a steel wheel on steel rail transit system?”
Notice what the question wasn’t. To his credit, then-city councilmember Gary Okino wanted the ballot measure to be a more direct, yes-or-no, should we build a rail system question. Instead, what voters got was a lawyerly pretzel of prose in which the only operable verb was “include.” Read it again. The ballot question didn’t ask if rail should be established. At face value, the question, and its majority approval, did nothing but confirm that city transportation projects are a function of city government.
At best, putting such a question on the ballot was a waste of time. Of course, the city has the “power” to build rail. So what? The relevant question—should it build the current proposed project?—was not plainly asked.
Worse, it was a sham. As Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter Laurie Au noted in 2008, even a “no” vote on that ballot measure, “would have [had] no legal power in stopping the city from continuing to build a mass transit system.”
Something to keep in mind when the city tells you rail was all your idea.”
http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/July-2011/Editors-Page-Training-Day/
Poorly designed, poorly constructed, poorly managed, poorly financed, and totally corrupt.
Are you talking about Rail or something else. Lot’s of possibilities.
Funny how the Star Advertiser was so pro-rail in past editorials. They could not see what many of us saw before. This a poorly conceived, planned, and executed project rammed through by corrupt politicians in the pockets of developers and labor unions. It will be a huge drag on everything in the future because of the out of control costs.
Is the Star Advertiser the cheerleader for the rail? You might want to rethink that one. Then again, after it (the rail) completely blows up, you could just blame the voters. ‘Reminds me of how the Advertiser endorsed Jeremy Harris for mayor three times, then after 10 years when it was obvious he had mismanaged the city, they blamed the voters.
Stopping at the stadium make sense from the point of view of traffic congestion. The most severe bottlenecks are at the H1-H2 merge in Pearl City and the narrow H1 corridor through Pearl City-Aiea.
Operating rail to the stadium will tend to move all the bottlenecks on H1 into the city. And we can deal with that with Express buses from the stadium.
Except you will have very few people willing to ride a bus to the rail to get to the stadium and then catch another bus to their destination.
Taking an Xpress from the stadium is better then sitting in downtown traffic jams.
What difference will it be sitting in a bus or in your own car if downtown has traffic jams?
Most likely the traffic jams will be caused by rail construction.
How can there be traffic jams when you say HART and Caldwald are lying. They project as a lot of ridership.
Their projections will FAIL. Would you like to talk offline and discuss a serious wager on that?
The taxpayers should insist that the mayor stop the rail at Aloha Stadium. The rail cost can be capped at less than $4 Billion at the Aloha Stadium terminus. The shorter route would allow the GET surcharge extension to be cancelled and would avoid an additional 9% property tax increase for train O&M.
With all the parking available at Aloha Stadium, it’s the ideal location for a “park and ride” and a major bus transit station. Express buses could operate from the Stadium to downtown and beyond during peak hour traffic ( 3 hours am and 3 hours pm) with departures every five to ten minutes.
For the rest of the day when the rail will be running virtually empty, the buses can be run every 30 to 60 minutes.
Taxpayers want to avoid higher costs for rail through downtown which would escalate exponentially, requiring property and GET to rise again and again!!
Which begs the question. Why not save 10-20B$ and do dedicated freeway exprss bus lane from Waianae to various place like Downtown or UH. Yes Dedicated=no other vehicle except the Bus=no 1000cars in front of you ding stupid things and taking up time!
Follow the money. Our elected officials sided with our so called “Business Leaders” and the Union in order to keep their support in dollars flowing in. In their heart of hearts they must know now that the “success” of rail sold to them was a bill of goods based on personal interests and a failed business model. The costs of rail,is only going to get worse and now they need to find blame. As they have one finger of blame pointed at HART leadership, they have four fingers pointed back at them. AWUE to them, they should resign for being irresponsible with our taxpayer money.
“Follow the money”. Hmmm, anything in the Panama Papers about our beloved elected officials, their families or their cohorts?
Actually, YES! But, you have to start with “ANSALDO”,”HITACHI”, other “Prime-Contractors” and “Sub-Contractors”, Suppliers, UNIONS, et al, etc., etc., etc., ad naseum…
Trash HART all you want but don’t forget the real culprits are the Oahu voters with their ainokea attitudes allowed this project to happen. Don’t look elsewhere for blame. Look right in the mirror. Those who voted against this project could see the obvious problems and unanswered questions. Oahu, you’re getting what you deserved. Maybe next time, you’ll engage your brain and THINK.
Oahu voters are not that bright. That’s why the same career politicians are voted back into office each year.
true but remember that the tyrant and bully boy Mufi lied and covered up the true costs of the project. He sold the bad deal to the public as a make–work project to keep union construction workers working in a recession.
This total economic disaster of a rail project needs to be ended and Grabauskas need to be fired. Horner as well. Both are incompetent and are responsible for this fiasco
which will rival the disaster of the ” big dig” Boston project in which Grabauskas was also involved. Sure would like to know what fools decided to hire Grabauskas, despite
what happened with the Boston project.
It has been one mistake after another, including the selection of Ansaldo as the train builder who later filed for bankruptcy and was bought out by Hitachi.
Unfortunately there was so many people “wetting their beaks” at the trough, and getting theirs, it does not appear that there is anyone in a position of responsibility willing to
to what is needed to end this total fiasco.
Duh. Was there ever any doubt about the comical way this project was conceived and executed? No one can state the estimated final cost or what the maintenance and power costs will be. One thing is for certain, the money to pay for it all will come out of our pockets into perpetuity.
And let’s re-visit the end result time table again
Rail: Let’s run through this again.
10 minutes to GET to a bus that will TAKE you to a rail stop
10 minutes wait FOR that bus (cause you can’t just get there the minute it arrives)
15 minutes for bus to DRIVE you to a rail stop
20 plus minutes for the 20 plus STOPS
20 minutes for the actual TRAVEL(THAT’S at 60 mph – mile a minute- of which it will NOT be due to stops and starts)
10 minutes wait for the bus to PICK YOU UP from the rail stop
15 minutes for the bus to take you where you’re REALLY going
OVER ONE AND A HALF HOURS!! And HOW many BILLIONS to pay for the OCCASIONAL day when it MAY take 2 hours?
And the sheeple voted on this without even know how much it would cost to ride. STILL don’t know and they’re STILL yapping about how good it’s going to be. Ignorance IS bliss, I guess.
Hey, at least the price of a postage stamp drops to 47 cents Sunday.
Yeah, but the post office is out 2 Billion dollars.