Public input sought on rail route

The City Council may select one of five proposals next week, the mayor warns

Now that the City Council has moved forward with a measure supporting rail as the city's mass transit option, Mayor Mufi Hannemann is encouraging the public to weigh in on the route.

"I want to implore the public to please come forward, especially now as the Council is narrowing the decision," Hannemann said, adding that he was pleased with the decision.

Council members met for nearly nine hours on Thursday and heard testimony from 96 people before voting 7-2 in favor of rail.

The proposal, Bill 79, faces a final committee meeting before the Transportation and Planning panel on Thursday, when five proposed rail routes could be narrowed to one.

"This bill obviously now needs to further delineate what that route will be," Hannemann said at a news conference yesterday.

A final vote by the full council is expected by the end of the month, before a one-half percent excise tax increase goes into effect Jan. 1 on Oahu to pay for the transit system.

Councilman Romy Cachola, chairman of the Transportation Committee, said several factors would be considered at next week's hearing. They include whether to build a 20-mile route from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center at an estimated cost of $3.6 billion, or a 28-mile route from West Kapolei to the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus at an estimated $4.6 billion.

"We said we could go with either one, and we can live with either one," Hannemann said.

Another issue raised at the council meeting was whether the rail line should run by the airport and Pearl Harbor to accommodate job centers, or through Salt Lake before heading downtown, which could be more friendly to residents.

Hannemann said the two routes that consultants studied and presented to the council went via the airport and Pearl Harbor. He noted that only four people at the hearing had spoken in favor of having the route go through Salt Lake.

"It's something I think the council has to look at, but they (Salt Lake residents) need to come forward," the mayor said.

The council could also ultimately determine that there is a better option than rail, although Hannemann said he did not believe that would happen, as 75 of the 96 people who testified spoke in favor of rail.

"I really believe that the majority of the people of Oahu -- whether it's by surveys or whether it's by public testimony -- want the rail option," he said.

Voting against the rail option were Councilwoman Barbara Marshall and Councilman Charles Djou, who has been among the project's toughest critics.

"I just don't subscribe to the mayor's thought process," Djou said. "Even if it does work -- and I think it might -- the big problem I have is the numbers. Even if it is effective, it has the potential to bankrupt our city."

Hannemann said he was confident that taxes would not have to be raised again to pay for the rail system, adding that with Hawaii's congressional delegation now in the majority party of Congress, "they're in a position to help us get as much federal dollars as possible."

Any shortfall in federal dollars could be addressed through public-private partnerships, he said.

Djou did not share the mayor's optimism, noting that no municipality outside of New York ever received more than $750 million for mass transit.

"Will we get a billion? Maybe. I hope so," he said. "But every dollar less than a billion dollars is a dollar we have to come up with."