{"id":12357,"date":"2022-06-04T23:20:24","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T09:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=12357"},"modified":"2022-06-04T23:20:25","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T09:20:25","slug":"questions-persist-about-viability-of-honolulu-rail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2022\/06\/04\/questions-persist-about-viability-of-honolulu-rail\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions Persist About Viability of Honolulu Rail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

by Keli\u2019i Akina, Ph.D.<\/em>

<\/strong>At this point, the one thing we can rely on concerning the Honolulu rail project is the long list of unanswered questions.

How much will it really cost? How will we pay for its future operations and maintenance? Will it ever be completed, and if so, when?

Those were questions we were asking a decade ago, and those are questions that we are still asking now.

In fact, I asked them again this past Monday on my \u201cHawaii Together\u201d<\/a> program on ThinkTech Hawaii, while hosting one of the most influential people in Hawaii who might know some of the answers: Natalie Iwasa.

Iwasa spoke in her private capacity as a community activist, certified public accountant and licensed fraud investigator.

But she also is a member of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, the city agency in charge of building the rail system. Throughout her 17-month tenure with HART, she has become well-known for asking the hard questions about the system that taxpayers want answered.

Like many of us, Iwasa is concerned about costs. First, there is the final price tag on construction, which we\u2019ve seen jump from its original price tag of $3.5 billion to its current estimate of nearly $13 billion. As big as that number is, it\u2019s still smaller than the estimate for finishing the project in full.

As Iwasa explained, the new plan involves ending the line at the Civic Center and making other cuts and changes, like eliminating the Pearl Highlands Parking Garage.

\u201cReally, the cost for that garage is outrageous,\u201d she explained.

\u201cIt was $330 million. I think it was like $200,000 per stall. To put that into perspective, this is actually in the plan. They had asked a contractor who recently built a garage on-island \u2014 I don\u2019t know exactly where \u2014 but that cost was like $35,000 to $45,000 per stall. You can see HART\u2019s estimate for the Pearl Highlands Garage is like four times as much. It is just outrageous.\u201d

The good news, Iwasa says, is that the wheel and track issues have been resolved and construction is more than half done. While some have said the rail is 75% complete, Iwasa prefers to think of it as closer to 64%, due to some stations that still need to be finished.

However, with several major hurdles still ahead, including complex construction requirements in the Dillingham area, Iwasa isn\u2019t confident about the cost projections:

\u201cI personally don\u2019t feel comfortable with the numbers because of the history,\u201d she said.

\u201cThe major contract we have is from Middle Street to now the Civic Center. We\u2019ve seen time and time again how those estimates have been blown out of the water. So if that contract comes in higher than what is anticipated, or there\u2019s something along Dillingham Boulevard with the utility relocation that comes up, it\u2019s just going to really mess things up as far as the finances go.\u201d

Not only does she worry that the additional $1.4 billion being sought for completion of the project won\u2019t be sufficient, she is concerned about ongoing operations costs. Ultimately, those will fall on the taxpayers, as the HART plan depends on taxes for continued funding.

As a CPA, Iwasa sees a \u201cbig flag\u201d in the generous assumptions made about the state\u2019s general excise and transient accommodations tax collections over the next 10 years, which don\u2019t account for policies that could depress tourism, such as laws that resulted in an atypical bump in tax revenues and Honolulu County\u2019s recently enacted Bill 41<\/a>, which will largely wipe out Hawaii\u2019s economically significant short-term rental market.

Iwasa said she thinks things have improved under HART\u2019s new leadership in terms of transparency, but HART\u2019s lack of forthrightness still is hurting the project.

For example, she said, HART last year produced a list of 25 alternatives to the current rail plans, yet it has never been part of a public discussion.

She also pointed to the agency\u2019s new recovery plan, which would end the rail at the Civic Center and have its riders switch from there to \u201cbus rapid transit.\u201d

\u201cThe plan is to create a lot of feeder buses and take away some of the express buses. Why aren\u2019t we putting that out there, so those people who are planning on riding the rail understand that they\u2019re going to have to get on a bus, off the bus, on the rail, off the rail, on a bus, off the bus? I think those types of things are still not being discussed, and I\u2019m sure there are other examples that people can come up with.\u201d

Of course, there are other questions as well. For example, if the Federal Transit Administration accepts the new plan, when and how will the rail be completed? And at what cost?

The fact that there is so much uncertainty surrounding the project makes it all the more important that the public stay involved and active. For Iwasa, public participation remains the most vital part of the process.

\u201cI just would really like to stress that people should testify,\u201d she said.

\u201cI get it: People are tired of feeling like they\u2019re not being heard. But it is so important, it is critical that you keep telling your decision-makers, your elected leaders, what you think. And, I tell you, it\u2019s going to stay on the record and it\u2019s so important. So that would be, I think, the most important comment that I can make.\u201d

To which I would add: Hear hear. I couldn\u2019t agree more.

Keli\u2019i Akina, Ph.D. <\/strong>is president and CEO of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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