Lawyers for the City and the Federal Transportation Administration have filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the adequacy of the Honolulu rail project’s environmental impact statement.
Filed late last week in federal court, the motion to dismiss alleges that the lawsuit raises issues that should have been addressed earlier and asserts that several of the individual plaintiffs, including former Gov. Ben Cayetano, have no standing to bring their claims.
In response, the plaintiffs issued a press release today calling the motion to dismiss “frivolous” and “a waste of the court’s time and the taxpayer’s money.”
The release was signed by Cayetano and other opponents of the rail project, retired state judge Walter Heen, University of Hawaii law Professor Randall Roth and retired businessman Cliff Slater.
“The Defendants’ Motion does make several claims, all of which lack merit. … The motion will not prevent our lawsuit from going forward,” they said.
They also pointed out what they called inaccuracies in the “response” from the local and federal attorneys.
The city is planning to build a 20-mile, elevated steel-on-steel rail from Kapolei to Honolulu at a cost to taxpayers of $5.3 billion.
Unfortunate that we must forego the safety and security of “historic” buildings born in 1926 in order to assure the safety, security, and health/welfare of people born in 1926 and earlier as they travel the same distances and farther to get into town to visit doctors and hospitals. It makes sense to allow these “historic” peoples the option of faster travel to reach their destinations rather than obstruct their travel times. Increasing travel times for elders may be harming them when they are in need of medical care. First Historic People, then Historic Places okay!?!
It is amazing to me that someone would envision taking a rail form of transit to go to a doctor’s visit (doctors actually used to visit the patient, now it is backwards) or a hospital. Instead, simply work on the freeways, and we could all get to our destinations 3 times faster, and in the safety of our gas-efficient car. So, what happens when it is raining? Do we have to breathe other people’s viruses to get to a doctor?
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