Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Friday, June 24, 2016
In the Beginning, Rail Cost Only $3B
By Grassroot Institute @ 10:22 PM :: 4583 Views :: Rail

No end in sight for Hawaii rail spending

by Matthew Reade, Grassroot Institute, June 24, 2016

No end in sight for Hawaii rail spending

This spring, the New York Times published a story about the Hawaii state rail project entitled “Hawaii Struggles to Keep Rail Project from Becoming a Boondoggle.” But with the project now set to cost more than twice the state’s initial projections and no plan to offset the operating costs of the completed train, it appears that the rail is a boondoggle already.

Early in the effort to determine a mass transit alternative for Oahu, city officials announced that the rail project would likely cost a little more than $3 billion, perhaps $4 billion at most. But when voters approved the rail referendum in 2008, the price tag had risen modestly to $4.6 billion.

But in six years, this figure has worsened considerably. By 2010, some estimates showed that the rail would cost over $7 billion. In May of this year, this number grew to $8 billion. And this month, a new projection from the Federal Transit Administration—the federal entity which determines “the appropriate levels of [financial] contingency” for public infrastructure projects—pegs the price of Hawaii’s rail behemoth at an astonishing $11 billion, well over double the price which voters approved in 2008.

To put this number in perspective, the state of Hawaii is home to about 1.4 million residents. Paying for an $11 billion rail project in its entirety would require every man, woman, and child in Hawaii to shell out nearly $8,000 each. Even at the state’s rosy projection of roughly $8 billion, every person would be on the hook for almost $6,000.

What’s more, the Hawaii Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) does not even have a plan in place to control the operational costs of the project once it is completed. Below is a shocking excerpt from the recent report by the Honolulu City Auditor which revealed that HART does not even think it is responsible for operating the train which it was expressly created to operate:

HART reports it is only responsible for constructing the rail project and is not responsible for the ongoing, annual operations and maintenance of the rail system. As a result, we found HART plans were outdated and did not adequately address how to operate and maintain the rail system once it is completed. We also did not find plans that addressed the ongoing costs of operating the system.

With no end in sight to the cost overruns on the Hawaii rail project and no plan in place to control its operational costs once constructed, the only place the new train will be taking the citizens of Hawaii is a bottomless pit of red ink and painful tax increases.

---30---

Matthew Reade is a policy analyst at the Grassroot Institute.

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii Military History

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Together

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

July 4 in Hawaii

Land and Power in Hawaii

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii