With the City’s Rail Plan, Tail is Wagging the Dog

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BY JOHN M. CORBOY – The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has told the Hawaii state legislature (StarAdvertiser, 4/17) that so few passengers will ride the planned $5.3 billion elevated steel on steel rail, that fares will likely cover only 40% of the costs.

Taxpayer subsidies will exceed $40 million annually by 2030.

So State Senator Donovan Dela Cruz, D-North Shore, has proposed development around depots to encourage up to 130,000 more people to live near transit stations and to ride the train (SB 2927).
Necessarily expanding the system with extra trains to carry these additional passengers will increase operating and maintenance costs, of course, so that even more riders would be needed to cover these higher expenses.  
Ever more and larger trains would be required for all these additional passengers, and so on, and so on. 
  
Not enough riders to keep the train in business?  Just bring in more people!  The tail is wagging the dog.  
               
 John M Corboy is a resident of Mililani

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3 COMMENTS

  1. DelaCruz wants to be a slumlord to 130k people for his steel on steel machine. By the time we can fly Jetsons’s trains? Sure, why not? That is thinking outside the cereal box. Someone quick slip him some generic granola and have him take mass transit for O’2 to reach his cerebellum.lemme see how old I will be in 2030…and how much I will have paid in taxes for this choo choo by then…and all its development…and police for 130k ppl from the mainland…that need jobs…on the train…”I been workin on the railroad, all the live long day”as the song went when I was a kid and my haole maternal side great grand father on the mainland sang it when he worked the rail road on the mainland…yes us FTA offspring end up poor when we are ethnically mixed, too! But, we still know a bad situation when we see it, and us locals get messed with. The local side is paternal! Rails are only good when they help ppl but harmful when they hurt!* This hurts*

  2. It is clear the “MUFFI-GABBARD & WAIKIKI Railroad” needs to be killed dead in it’s tracks, $5.5 Billion upfront and $40 Million a year, just to give a reason to build more housing and shopping, so the poor folks can live on the wrong side of the tracks. Gee whiz, how many buses could you get for $40 million extra a year, not to mention the $5.5 Billion. Would you really consider sending either of the major backers of this boondoggle (“Muffi or Gabbard) to Congress? With this kind of public service experience what could we expect next, a bridge to Maui? Would you buy a bridge from either these two, I think not. Vote wisely, it’s your future and your money at stake.

  3. Great, build more homes, but keep the infrastructure the same. Typical Hawaii elected official BS.

    We have no real leadership at the Capitol or the city/county council.

    The sheer amount of money involved should make every single person in the State take notice. Our so called leaders have no concept of doing what is best for the people and should be shown the door in November.

    All officials that have served two terms or more should be voted out regardless of party.

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