Posted on: Tuesday, December 16, 2003

EDITORIAL
Beyond rhetoric, rail project still a dream

While his rhetoric might have been more inflammatory than necessary, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie made an important point this week on the prospects of the latest state-backed proposal for a $2.6 billion light rail project for O'ahu.

The plan, Abercrombie said, is a "fantasy" designed to bring political attention to Gov. Linda Lingle and her administration.

Lingle's office dismissed Abercrombie's comments as little more than partisan sniping.

But that's not quite the entire story. Abercrombie — and others in the Hawai'i congressional delegation — know that federal support for a transit system on O'ahu will not come without two crucial elements: Unified and coherent political support for the project from both the state and county levels (including County Council and state Legislature) along with a dedicated source of the local financing share.

Neither of those two elements is in place.

Our representatives in Congress have been burned before. They spent political chits lining up federal support for a local transit project only to see the effort die for lack of political support or lack of political will.

They are unlikely to put themselves in that position again.

There is merit in the idea of some kind of facility that would bring in thousands of commuters from outlying suburban areas to urban

Honolulu in a way that would not add more congestion to our overloaded freeways.

It is smart to begin the conversation now, not at some future date when congestion is impossible and federal money unavailable.

But unless there is broad and deep political consensus and a source of money for the substantial local share of the costs of such a project, it will not happen.

And that was Abercrombie's message. The task of converting this dream of a transit line from fantasy to reality is right here at home.