REPORT FROM HONOLULUTRAFFIC.COM – Our attorneys yesterday filed for an expedited hearing of our appeal:
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case of Honolulutraffic.com et al. vs. Federal Transit Administration et al., today filed a request for an expedited hearing of their appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The filing is attached here.
The request details that in the Final Environmental Impact Statement of 2003, the City and FTA found that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) was preferable to rail, and the public concurred.
Yet two years later BRT was not considered even a reasonable alternative to be studied in the then proposed EIS despite the statutory requirement to “rigorously explore all reasonable alternatives.“
The District Court ruling that the City and FTA were not in error in this, and other matters, was clearly wrong and thus resulted in our current appeal. The request calls for hearing by August this year in time for a Ninth Circuit decision prior to any restart of rail construction.