I vote 1.5 billion times to have the tax increase of one percentage point.

Compare the $300 million tax increase (a lot of it funded by visitor spending) with the $1.5 billion that every motorist, bus rider and truck, taxi and bus driver and their companies would save in efficiency. We will get five times our money back by reducing our 13-hour workday. Rail will reduce the 19 million gallons of gas wasted every year in congestion. Remember, 25 minutes from Kapolei to town.

Wake up, people; one less car on the road and your traffic speeds up. If it saves people time, they will ride the rail. If you build it, they will ride. I guarantee it.

Let's see rail transit built in this lifetime

At 82, one of the only regrets in my life before I die will be that I was not able to use the O'ahu mass-transit system.

I fully support the building of the mass-transit system and the raising of the state general excise tax another 1 percentage point rather than a half-percentage point.

The cost of an additional $900 per family annually is a small price to pay for building the rail system.

Don't forget the tourists plus all of us who will be purchasing goods in Hawai'i will be paying for the rail system.

It will be the best deal for everybody in the future.

Rail system offers numerous benefits

I have ridden on rail systems in Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Boston and Atlanta. Rail works. You can't imagine how those cities would work without it. Actually, you can. It's called Honolulu traffic.

Of all the things I'm willing to pay a tax for, it is rail.

Opponents of rail (or the tax) need to consider the benefits and values that it would bring. What is the value of your time? Even if rail only saved you 24 minutes a day (12 minutes each way), that is worth more than $2,000 a year if your time is $10 an hour.

Many residents would be able to eliminate the cost of a car, maintenance and insurance. Job opportunities would expand for workers, and employers would have a workforce pool to choose from that is not as confined by traffic/travel concerns. Schools and affordable housing would become more accessible, and transit centers would have proven track records of revitalizing economically depressed commercial and residential areas.

Let's hope our government leaders are able to find the courage to move rail forward.

Rail transit system critical to the future

A rail transit system is essential if we intend to flourish as a growing community. The room for growth is in West O'ahu, so let's plan for the future now.

Our leaders in government could have had us in a much better situation today if they had not listened to the naysayers long ago.

I walk to work, so I will not benefit directly from the system. However, I am willing to pay my fair share to make our city a contender with other first-class urban areas in the world.

We're paying dearly by not having rail

I find it ironic when people object to rail transit based on "the cost." Apparently, a one percentage point tax increase is too much to ask, but the price already being paid through countless hours wasted on the road and a way of life that continually drains the energy and joy from our homes and workplaces is somehow less costly. Even if we put together the best possible improvements for buses, zip lanes, flyovers, bridges and ferries, all of these solutions would still be affected by road congestion.

Some have objected to rail on the grounds that not many will be able to use it. However, even those people who will never use it will still benefit because their travel times will decrease and the quality of life for anyone who travels anywhere will improve. Even if only a fraction of commuters used the rail, this would still mean hundreds if not thousands of cars that would not be on the road.

Who can put a price on how the extra time and vitality would help our island? Parents would have more energy for their kids. Teachers and students would bring more enthusiasm to the classroom. Business would become more accessible to customers and employees.

Rail transit is inevitable because the price of living without it is too high. It's only a matter of how long it will take us to figure that out.

Let's be realistic about rail system

I think that rail could be a good thing in Honolulu's urban core. But let's be realistic about what it can and cannot do:

• Rail will not reduce traffic from where it is today. In the long term, it will relieve some of the projected increase in traffic at certain times of the day. In the short term, the new people moving here to fill the development jobs it creates will probably worsen traffic, as will the construction when it crosses major roadways.

• Because of the federal subsidy, taxpayers in other states will pay for a portion of rail's development. They will not be paying for its operation and maintenance, which will ultimately cost far more than the original construction. Thus, rail will further burden the city's finances (albeit after the current mayor has left office).

• Rail is most successful when it is prohibitively expensive to use a car. Therefore, gasoline taxes are a better funding source for rail, as they also discourage driving.

• Rail is unlikely to significantly encourage the further development of Kapolei. Commuting to Kapolei isn't a problem.

As we make plans to build a rail system, we should look at others currently in existence in order to build one that has the best possible ridership and the lowest drain on the city's treasury.

Rail transit system would have to 'fit' our lifestyles

Reading the various letters advocating a rail system, I'm left wondering how much research has been devoted to whether it will "fit" the lifestyles in Hawai'i.

While a rail system on paper looks very efficient in transporting bodies from one place to another, it doesn't address the issues of driving to the station, sending and picking up children from school, running errands after work, etc. Aren't these the main reasons why carpooling also doesn't work for most working families?

In a major metropolis like New York or where there are greater distances, these functions have to be divided or specialized, thus resulting in carpooling and trains. In a geographically confined space, these necessary activities can be combined, as in Hawai'i.

Will it be possible to keep the cost of commuting by rail (and car) lower for the individual than driving his or her own car, even with inflated gas prices? To make a convincing argument, rail advocates will have to compare Honolulu's situation with a comparable city, i.e. with a population of about 1 million to 1.5 million within a confined geographical area.

Alternatives to relieve congestion? Rather than raising the excise tax, has serious research been done about highway tolls, which would encourage carpooling, and substantially raising the automobile tax on additional cars (according to the price of the car so that those who can afford the more expensive cars would pay more) after the first so that families would give serious thought before having a car for every adult in the family? This would encourage greater use of the bus, leading to greater efficiency of public transport, and also contribute to reducing pollution.