Back to the future: A look at rail plan

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

When the City Council derailed O'ahu's last mass transit effort in 1992, then-Mayor Frank Fasi swore it wasn't dead, just being put into "suspended animation" until a new source of money could be found.

Eleven years later, it's back — alive, if not actually kicking yet.

City and state officials announced last week that they intend to use the 1992 plan as a starting point for a new elevated light-rail line expected to be fully operational on O'ahu by 2018.

Although details on route, technology and financing are likely to be different, officials say many facets of the old plan can be used to cut the time and cost it will take to get rail transit on line in Hawai'i.

So what will the future O'ahu rail system look like?

A review of the 1992 plans suggests that it likely will be run above ground along the heavily traveled corridor from Kapolei to just outside downtown Honolulu, with about a dozen stops in between.

Riders will be able to take buses or drive their cars to stations, then board 95-foot rail cars that will be electrically powered and equipped with rubber-dampened steel wheels. The air-conditioned cars, which could be computer-automated or may have someone operating them, would get to their destination in about half the time it takes on the highway.

"Inside, riders love rail. It's light, cool, quiet with big windows and an easy ride," said James Cowen, who led the development of Portland's award-winning light-rail network and now runs Honolulu's city bus service as president of O'ahu Transit Services.

"If you lived in Wai'anae and could ride a train to central city to work or even shop and do it in 20 minutes, of course you're going to prefer the train," Cowen said. "To ride the bus, you really have to be committed to public transit or have no other way to get there."

'92 concerns revisited

Just as in 1992, though, obstacles abound. A review of old environmental impact statements shows that residents had complaints about the choice of routes; what the elevated structure would look like; economic and environmental impacts; and, perhaps most importantly, how the system was to be paid for.

In the 11 years since the old plan was killed, the estimated construction costs of the line have gone from $1.7 billion to $2.6 billion. It would also cost tens of millions of dollars to operate.

"Honestly, I don't know if the taxpayers are going to stand for that kind of money now," Fasi said. "We've got to get a lot of help from the federal government, no question about it."

In 1992, city officials proposed raising the state excise tax on O'ahu from 4 percent to 4.5 percent for 10 years to pay for the local share of the project, but the increase was rejected by the City Council.

Last week, Gov. Linda Lingle said she would again seek authorization from the state Legislature to let all counties raise the excise tax to pay for transportation projects like the one now being proposed for Honolulu. Fasi suggested instead that officials consider giving Honolulu a bigger share of the hotel room tax collected by the state.

Rep. Donna Mercado Kim, who voted in favor of the rail plan when she was on the City Council in 1992, said the obstacles in the path of light rail have grown since then, just as traffic has.

"The costs are growing and the share of federal funding is going to be less, but at some point we have to make the decision to proceed and bite the bullet — or forever put the whole idea to rest," she said. "The cost is tremendous but the cost of not doing anything is even worse. "

The old plan envisioned a line that ran from Leeward Community College through downtown Honolulu and to the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. The new line is likely to take a major shift westward to accommodate the growth that has occurred in the past decade in areas such as Kapolei, Makakilo and 'Ewa.

Such a change is likely to reduce previous complaints about the visual and environmental impact of the project. That's because in the 1992 environmental impact statement, the source of the biggest problems were in urban Honolulu. Still, the elevated line is likely to draw criticism for destroying mountain views in areas from Kapolei to Pearl Harbor.

How long a route

Transit officials have said the long, densely populated corridor running from Leeward O'ahu all the way to Hawai'i Kai is ideal for a rail line that can be fed by local buses. Fasi said former Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole once told him that "if rail transit doesn't work in the Leeward Coast of O'ahu, then it can't work anywhere."

Previously planned stops along the new route included Pearl City, Pearlridge, Aloha Stadium, Arizona Memorial, Makalapa Gate, Honolulu Airport, Lagoon Drive, Dillingham Plaza and Honolulu Community College. Officials estimated in 1992 that rail riders could save anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes in travel time over automobile or bus trips.

Members of Lingle's Task Force on Transportation, which came up with the new proposal, said last week that the first operable segment of the new line might run between Leeward Community College and Aloha Stadium. Officials no longer envision a line through urban Honolulu or to Waikiki — at least not for the next 20 years.

"The secret to success is to start small and keep expanding," said Joe Magaldi, a former city transportation director. "You've got to give people something to feel and touch and show that it really does work and convince them that the next section is needed."

Cowen said that's just what happened in Portland in the early 1980s when some residents expressed an unwillingness to pay for a new rail system that did not serve them directly. That's the same outcry being heard in Honolulu now.

"People at first were saying, 'Hell no, we're not going to pay,' " Cowen said of Portland's project. "The thing that solved the problem was when we built the first line and people in other places started demanding one for their area, too."

How many people will ride the new line? Officials again say it's too early to tell. But had the 1992 proposal gone forward, planners envisioned 140,000 riders using the system every day by 2005 on a typical weekday.

That's a little more than half the number of 240,000 rides now provided by the city bus service. The old plans called for people to switch between light rail and buses freely, paying the same fare on either one and having monthly passes that would be valid for both.

Commuters' reactions

Chris Kaneshiro, who was waiting Friday for a bus in Kapolei to take him to his job as a photographer in Pearlridge, said that if the new line were running, he'd use it instead, provided it would be just as convenient and inexpensive as the bus.

"Either way, it's better than driving my car," he said.

Jerry and Alice Hardee said they probably would make more trips into town from their Ko Olina home if they could drive to Kapolei and catch the rail.

"I like the idea," Jerry Hardee said. "Right now we only go all the way to town once or twice a month because it's too hard to drive or take the bus."

Kaneshiro and Hardee said they'd support a proposed tax increase to help pay for the new line, but Makaha resident Ray Gover, who had driven to Kapolei to drink coffee at Starbucks, said he would oppose it.

"I get kind of upset because they aren't talking about running the line to Makaha, where we don't have any other way to get in or out" he said. "I'd say no unless they promise to extend it our way sometime in the future. At least they could say that's what they'll do, even if they don't mean it. They're always forgetting about us out in Wai'anae."

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.