A Costly Commute to Paradise 

May 15, 2023

By Luke Suan 

The Honolulu rail is a project that was envisioned to help solve the major traffic issue on Oahu. It spans over twenty miles and runs from East Kapolei and is planned to span towards Ala Moana Center in Waikiki. Construction first started on February 22, 2011 and has raised many problems and controversy with the locals since then. Many funding, legal, and construction issues caused major setbacks and delays for the rails schedule. The rail was projected to be completed in 2020 and cost $4 billion, but now in 2023, 12 years since the start of the project, the cost has risen to nine billion dollars and has been pushed back to be completed by 2025. So, the people of Hawaii are questioning if this project is going to be worth the time and amount of money put into it. The rail seems to be a never ending project, so let's take a look at the history of the project and why it's such a big issue to complete. 

But as soon as it was approved to start a federal lawsuit to stop it was filed. The lawsuit alleged that officials failed to properly consider and analyze transit alternatives and violated the Transportation Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the National Environmental Policy. Though officials had little to say about the lawsuit, Toru Hamayasu, the chief rail planner, argued that they did look over the technical aspects of the project and insisted the city did analyze the different alternatives. They eventually won the lawsuit in the end but as a result the construction was delayed, and it took around two to three years for everything to be solved and sorted out. 

Shortly after this another legal challenge came up when a contract was proposed to provide 80 train cars and the rail’s core systems from Ansaldo Honolulu, a rail manufacturer. Though Ansaldo claims to have a good track record, cities like Los Angeles claimed to have had problems with Ansaldo, alleging that their train cars were delivered late, had technical problems and tried to break free of the contract with them. The city stated that they had to pay $574 million but they didn’t say the actual price that included operation and maintenance fees, so the true total came up to $1.1 Billion. The media and City Council members were outraged by this discovery, Sumitomo Corp. of America and Bombardier Transportation who also bid on their contracts filed for contract protests. In the end, the protests were eventually resolved but it did cause major delays and construction of the rail was at a standstill throughout these periods. 

As of 2022, the Honolulu Rail is nearing $10 Billion in costs to become Honolulu’s biggest project in Hawaii’s history. Due to all of the political delays and budget issues, staying on schedule was a huge issue. It was projected to be a $4 Billion project completed by 2020 but it has now doubled and is now set to be completed by 2025. Ke Ali’i conducted an interview with Deric Bunda, a local boy who has been living on Oahu for 17 years and has been here since the start of the rail. Ke Ali’i asked him about his thoughts on the cost of the rail and he stated “It’s absurd, I honestly think that they’re just taking our money away from us at this point like robbing us and just abusing their power”.

$195 Million to build the maintenance and storage facility in West Oahu and $156 Million spent on preparing the projects environmental impact statement and other general engineering consulting work. “I don’t really think the project is going to be worth it, I understand the goal is to get more people off the road and cause less traffic but I don’t really see it solving those problems” Deric stated. Ke Ali’i also asked Congressman Ed Case about the current cost issue with the rail and he stated “For over two decades we have not operated our federal finances on a prudent and sustainable basis, Our annual deficit (the amount by which outgoing outgoing expenses for government programs exceed incoming revenues from taxes and other resources) has continued every year, requiring more and more borrowing to make up the difference”. 

Besides the money problems, there were construction issues that have popped up in 2022 as well. According to “Honolulu Rail Whistleblower: Tracks, Wheels: A Maintenance Nightmare And Potential Safety Issue” by Honolulu Civil Beat, they asked David Walker, who worked on the Honolulu rail project’s track construction, stating that “fundamental flaws in the track crossing and train wheels remain. The lingering issues will leave the city with tracks and wheels that will be incredibly difficult to maintain once the system opens and potentially present a safety problem in the long term” He goes on to say that the way the rail is designed will cause many problems when it comes to maintenance. Just recently HART (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation) reported that there were cracks appearing in the concrete columns, this would of course cause setbacks in scheduling. “It doesn’t sound safe to me and I wouldn’t have trust to ride it, if it's a $9 Billion dollar project I’d expect that the city would hire the best engineers for the job” Deric stated. 

two p.m to six p.m and from July 1st to the 4th rides will be free for everybody. Despite that, many locals are asking the question “Why continue at all?” A study conducted by Civil Beat stated that some people are suggesting that we should just abandon the rail, they insist on focusing on other resources rather than “throwing good money at a bad project” Instead of the rail they suggested reusing it as an elevated walkway, bike or running path like the High Line in New York City. 

In conclusion, the rail still has many obstacles to overcome in order for it to be fully open. Delays, funding and constructional issues, we don’t know what else will pop up in these upcoming years. But will it really help with Oahu’s daily traffic issues? We just have to hope for the best and trust that our money is being put to work.