Administration
acknowledges
rail transit could
ease traffic

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

A Lingle administration official told lawmakers yesterday that a fixed-rail transit system -- like one shelved by the City Council a decade ago -- could help ease Oahu traffic.

"At this point, in reviewing what the old plan was in 1992, yes, I believe a system of some type, a fixed-rail system, will alleviate traffic congestion on our freeways," said state Transportation Director Rodney Haraga.

Haraga was replying to a question asked yesterday by Sen. Willie Espero (D, Ewa) about whether such a rail system would help in urban Honolulu.

But Haraga continued to decline to take an official position on whether the administration would support a rail system as a traffic solution.

City Transportation Director Cheryl Soon, meanwhile, told the Senate Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations Committee that a fixed-rail system would cost about $2.3 billion today, up from the $1.76 billion cost in 1992.

The committee passed a bill that calls for the state and city to come up with a plan to implement a fixed-rail system for Oahu. That bill is similar to one a House committee passed earlier this week.

The fixed-rail plan in 1992 was killed after the City Council, by a 5-4 vote, decided against a tax increase to pay for the city's share of cost.

Mayor Jeremy Harris' administration has since proposed a beefed-up bus system called Bus Rapid Transit.

But Lingle has said she does not support BRT, and members of the Legislature are also cool to the idea.

Lingle has said she intends to call a meeting of state and city leaders to come up with one mass-transit plan for Oahu.

"While the city and county continues to want to pursue the BRT project, we have felt that a monorail, a light rail, other projects could be technically made compatible. The issue would be the financing," Soon said. "The beauty of the BRT project is that it was structured to avoid the need for any new taxes."

Gordon Lum, executive director of the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, said replacing Bus Rapid Transit with a fixed-rail system as the preferred route will require many actions, including consensus between the state and city and a financial plan.