You don’t want to miss the Wall Street Journal story published at the end of last week about Honolulu’s rail project (“How a Train Through Paradise Turned Into a $9 Billion Debacle“).
In case you aren’t familiar with Honolulu rail, the subtitle to the story went further: “The project has tallied one of America’s biggest transit cost overruns; a grand jury is investigating.”
I guess that’s really it in a nutshell!
The story is by journal reporters Paul Overberg and Dan Frosch.
I believe the full story is behind a paywall. But if you know someone who subscribes, or have other access to the WSJ, definitely read through this telling of the tale.
Among the cascade of problems: Honolulu pushed ahead before fully planning the project, and nearly 100 contracts had to be reworked, causing delays. The city began construction before fully checking Native Hawaiian burial grounds, and a judge halted the project for over a year. Planners built too close to power lines, so Honolulu must shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to move them.
Dogged by such blunders, the project has seen its price tag soar to more than $9 billion from about $5 billion. The cost overruns are among the largest that transportation experts say they’ve ever seen. The cost has led to an extra excise tax on businesses, which can affect the price of goods and services, and it has hit tourists through an expanded hotel tax.
A few more random quotes from the story.
Honolulu’s elevated rail line shows how badly municipalities can stumble in tackling giant infrastructure projects, especially when they’re powered by political urgency.
***
Some federal officials had long been worried. A 2006 note from one FTA official to another, unearthed in a lawsuit, said, “We seem to be proceeding in the hallowed tradition of Honolulu rapid transit studies: never enough time to do it right, but lots of time to do it over.”
***
Delays, such as losing bidders’ appeals, triggered a cascade of contract adjustments, ultimately costing hundreds of millions of dollars. A financial analysis ordered in 2010 by then-Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, said the project would cost $1.7 billion more than Honolulu anticipated. The report also said tax revenue for the project was likely to grow at 30% less than forecast. And it said ridership forecasts—about 100,000 a day when built and 120,000 daily a decade later—were too rosy.
***
“They tried to force this as a major solution,” said Panos Prevedouros, civil and environmental engineering chairman at the University of Hawaii and a former mayoral candidate. “Now, we’re paying the dividends of all the lies, and we haven’t gotten any benefits.”
No, there’s nothing really new that was uncovered. But seeing it all together, in context, displayed for a national audience, is sobering. To say the least.
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Hawaii refused to deal with change, once again. All you can do now is play the usual blame game. Meanwhile, Hawaii is not going to return to what it was like when you grew up. As long as you fight change in Hawaii, you’re going to have island drama like this. Otherwise, it would be extremely boring. This stuff doesn’t magically happen. I do not like Mufi, but you had your chances to fight rail when he forced it through. Hawaii did the usual: It focused on the present and ignored the future, until it came. Just let them build a bloody train and get over it.
Thank you for alerting us to this article. I clicked on the link that you provided and was able to gain access to the article–but only after closing the box the pop-up box that informed me that I would have subscribe to read the article.
(I saved the article as a pdf file to read later.)
Disagree w/Tim. Rail has been promised to developers, unions and other money interests who are not footing the bill (and the embarrassment).
Just stop it already. We can’t afford it—unless maybe we go after the money fraudulently invoiced.
The rail project certainly has problems, but that article suffers mightily from journalistic shorthand and the usual rehash approach that misses lots of context. Stuff like “began construction before fully checking Native Hawaiian burial grounds“ is a huge distortion. And frankly, any story that relies on the likes of Panos for insight is not likely worth spending much time on.
The rail should not go to Ala Moana because everything seaside of King Street is in a flood zone. Pause at Middle Street and design a new route eastward. If rail goes to UHM, we can save money by not cannibalizing the UH system by wasting money on the fantasy of developing UH West Oahu. A “Second City” is impossible anyway.
Perhaps the elevated heavy rail system will not be accessible in a flood zone, and should be relocated inland.
But the route should be extended to Kahala Mall and not just end at the University. Rail would not extend eastward into the suburbs from that mall. Suburbs are better served by cars.
Heavy rail is ideal for large, high-density areas, and the area between Kalihi and Kahala Mall might be better suited to redevelopment than the suburbs.
In the minds of the planners, it’s as if the rail project does not even exist anymore.
https://www.civilbeat.org/beat/should-hawaii-build-an-underwater-tunnel-between-ewa-and-downtown/
The trend is to ban cars from cities, not spend a fortune to bring in more cars.
https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-going-car-free-ban-2018-12#bogot-closes-its-streets-every-sunday-from-7-am-to-2-pm-14
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/11/spain-nationwide-car-free-city-center-car-ban/576976/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2020/01/21/phasing-out-cars-key-to-paris-mayors-plans-for-15-minute-city/#c24472369521
How much should it cost to ride rail?
https://www.civilbeat.org/beat/how-much-should-it-cost-to-ride-rail/
In high-density areas like downtown, all mass transit should be free.
In low-density areas like the suburbs where buses and trains run empty during non-peak hours, the cost for mass transit should not be subsidized by taxpayers at all.
If the elevated rail line from Kapolei terminated at Middle St. then one possibility for useful mass transit might be a light rail line running on King St. from Kalihi all the way to Moiliili with possible extension into Kaimuki and/or to Kahala and maybe even to Aina Haina.
This would hit many of the major trip origins and destinations and large numbers of people will be able to walk to it and take it.
The rail line would run in the middle of the street exclusively and there would be one way “frontage roads” on each side for access to abutting properties. Other refinements might be traffic lights timed for the trains, and forbidding turns at various intersections to make better use of the green time on the traffic lights. Stops would not be as frequent as for today’s buses.