The Honolulu city auditor’s review of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) found numerous problems, including the use of obsolete and unreliable decision-making tools, failure to analyze major changes in the planned rail line, and leasing more office space than the agency needs. The rail line HART is constructing is already 25 percent over budget, and based on the problems found in the audit, the auditor “anticipate[s] additional cost overruns.”
Rather than fix the problems, HART officials chose to attack the messenger, claiming that the audit (which had been requested by the city council) was “politically motivated.” When the auditor shared a confidential draft of the audit with HART, HART shared it with unauthorized people, attempted to intimidate the auditors, and went to the press to attack the auditors before the audit was made public.
Not many people believe the agency’s attack on the city auditor. Honolulu’s mayor asked the the chair of HART’s board and another one of its board members to resign, perhaps hoping to use them as scapegoats for the project’s failings. Yet shaking the top of the agency won’t help fix the fundamental problems, which are that a $6 billion construction project is really beyond the region’s needs or the agency’s abilities.
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If Honolulu ever completes its rail line, it can look forward to a few years of smooth running followed by a steady deterioration in service and demands for increased subsidies. Just last week, another Washington Metro train broke down again, requiring the evacuation of 154 people. Ironically, this train was made up of the new 7000-series cars that were supposed to fix many of Metro’s problems.
More recently, the Federal Transit Administration let Metro know that it has many more safety issues still to be resolved. No wonder some people are coming to their senses and suggesting that bus-rapid transit makes more sense than expensive rail transit lines.
Warm up the tar, get out the feathers.
Mean while here in Portland OR. you hear nothing about TriMet’s plan to spend $2,000,000,000 transportation dollars on a sparkling new light rail boondoggle out Barber Blvd. to Bridgeport.
I think mum is the word because it is obvious our real transportation system (our streets and freeways) are crumbling from neglect and suffering gridlock because of government’s total failure to increase capacity.
And so Portland is fixing to raise a big new gas tax as Clackamas County tries a big jump in car registration fees. Gosh, you don’t suppose that $2 billion dollars of transportation tax dollars should go to increasing surface street capacity that we all use instead of a new light rail line that might serve 1% of the folks on their busiest day do you?
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Yet shaking the top of the agency won’t help fix the fundamental problems, which are that a $6 billion construction project is really beyond the region’s needs or the agency’s abilities.
” ~ anti-planner
That does raise an interesting issue with all these rail lines and trolleys being spun up under some little agency or muni dept. Maybe they really can’t handle these things and, at the end of the day, if they’re going to exist they need to be owned and operated by the state DOT.
Anyone smaller just isn’t going to adequately get the job done. Yes? No? Maybe?
I don’t know what they’re smoking but I’m sure it’s Hawaiian and unpronounceable by me. Oahu isn’t exactly a big island it’s roughly 30×20 miles. Going out on a limb as a kid I had (still have) a fascination with Monorails and wondered if Oahu really wanted to propose a transit they could have built a monorail.
Using straddle beams, derailment is virtually impossible. Since it’s elevated, accidents with surface traffic and pedestrians are impossible (unless the train derailed and landed on the road; again a highly unlikely scenario). Translates to less system down time, less liability suits and most importantly, a safer public. Street rail systems with grade crossings (light rail, trams, commuter rail or trollies) can’t approach this level of safety since foolhardy people often try to beat the speeding train at the crossing with disastrous results. Also underground rail is prohibitively expensive (tunneling through Hawaiian solid basalt) Running on rubber tires makes monorails relatively quiet compared to the loud clickety clack of metal on metal.
Polls show monorails are the most aesthetically pleasing of all elevated rail systems. Their sleek design blends in with modern urban environments. And if need be, the pylons and track; which made of precast concrete can be made to accommodate whatever architectural style the system coexist with. https://earthtools.co.uk/images/category-heads/concrete-balustrade-samples/standard-balustrade-1.jpg
Quick construction time results in less disruption to the surrounding environments, whether business or residential. Building heavy rail in the city means rerouting cables/lines and pipes, digging and businesses forfeiting revenue for the disruption caused by years of construction, light rail is no different. Customers can’t access their establishments during the long period of construction. Entire streets and underground utilities must be rebuilt to put in light rail. During light rail construction, there are always businesses that go under because customers can’t get to them. Simply put…dig a hole, drop in a pre-built support pylon, truck in the track which was manufactured offsite, lift into place! Monorail beamway can be installed far faster than the alternatives. The Las Vegas Mono only took Seven months to build. Contractors and rail consultants love heavy rail. It keeps them busy for years and brings in the big bucks. You pay for it Mr. Taxpayer. As if that isn’t enough, operational costs of heavy rail are so high that Mr. Taxpayer (you again) have to subsidize it heavily for as long as it operates. Being electrically driven by a power provided from the rail, monorails don’t require the spider web of above ground power lines.
Steel wheels on steel rail grind and wear. Therefore, both wheels and rail require far more care than monorail. This alone makes cost efficient impossible with heavy rail. Frequent vehicle breakdowns during operation also make heavy rail much less reliable than monorail. Monorails regularly operate amazingly at over 90% reliability. No other form of transit can touch that number. The rubber tires get little wear running on smooth guideways. Typically, each load tire gets over 100,000 miles of travel before being replaced and its as simple as…..changing a tire.