City Council to vote on light rail in October
| • | State may consider 'Nimitz flyover' |
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
City Council members will be asked to vote in October on supporting a light rail transportation system on O'ahu.
The vote is designed to give city and state officials a clear signal on what kind of mass transit system council members would support. In effect, it could also be a referendum on the city's plans for a regional bus rapid transit system serving the H-1 Freeway corridor.
Transportation Committee Chairman Nestor Garcia said he would schedule a vote in October on a still-to-be-introduced light rail resolution.
The vote would come when a task force set up by Gov. Linda Lingle is trying to come up with a transportation plan to serve Leeward and Central O'ahu.
"The task force wants to know where the council stands before it makes a choice," Garcia said.
The task force is considering a number of options, including a light rail system, dedicated highway lanes for buses, or large-scale highway improvements, state Transportation Director Rod Haraga said yesterday. It hopes to have a recommendation by the start of the legislative session in January.
Members of the task force, composed of city and state officials, are leery of choosing one expensive option over another only to find out council members are unwilling to approve or help pay for the system. That's what happened in 1992 when the council members killed, on a 5-4 vote, a plan to provide the city's share of money for a $1.9 billion, 15.6-mile fixed rail system that was years in the making.
"Nobody wants to see that happen again," Garcia said.
Council Chairman Gary Okino, who drafted the resolution, said it should put city and state officials on the same page as plans for a mass transit system move forward. "The Legislature has gone on record supporting a light rail. This is the next step to see if the city can express its position," Okino said.
The resolution would not lock the city into any course of action, but would urge city administration to develop a plan of action, including deciding how to pay for any new mass transit system.
In recent years, city officials have pursued a Bus Rapid Transit system that would be built in stages. The initial phase, running from Iwilei to Waikiki is expected to be operational in 2005. The regional phase, using buses on dedicated lanes to move a large number of people from Leeward suburbs to Honolulu, would not be finished until 2010. Supporting a light rail system now could signal that the council is not willing to provide money to complete the regional BRT.
Cheryl Soon, director of the city's Department of Transportation Services, said the city's BRT plans for urban O'ahu would be compatible with a rail transit system. The city administration wants to know where a light rail system would go, how much it costs and how it would be paid for before deciding to endorse it, she said.
Haraga said officials have to be united behind one decision if they hope to gain federal money for any mass transit project.
"Either we're going in united or we're not going in," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
