Rerouting should not depart from rail transit’s purpose

THE ISSUE Mayor Hannemann has briefed the City Council about reducing the rail transit system to cut costs.

CONSTRUCTION of the rail transit system was projected several months ago to cost $3 billion, but that has increased to $4 billion. Mayor Hannemann is suggesting that it be reduced by maintaining the heart of the project -- between Kapolei and downtown -- and eliminating legs to Waikiki and Manoa. That is a sensible alternative that still would address the island's most critical transportation needs.

The system's cost was estimated early this year at $2.6 billion, and the sharp increases are troubling, predicted by critics of the proposal. That should not cause a reversal of the decision to go forward with the plan. Further delay would increase the cost even more.

The main purpose of the transit system is to reduce traffic congestion between Honolulu's urban center and what has been designated as the island's secondary urban center -- Kapolei. Extension of the line to the University of Hawaii's Manoa campus and including a spur to Waikiki were secondary. These routes can be postponed until better financing can be worked out.

Computer simulation of a 60-foot-tall transit structure needed for the line to cross the H-1 freeway to reach Manoa horrified some residents when pictures were made public three months ago. For some, eliminating the UH leg might be a popular change for visual reasons.

City Council members told the Star-Bulletin's Crystal Kau that the mayor briefed them on the proposal this week. Among the options being considered by Hannemann is moving the Kapolei station -- the western end -- from the business section of Kapolei to a UH-West Oahu campus planned on the western edge of Kapolei, a move east by about a mile, or to move it more than five miles east of Kapolei to Leeward Community College.

A west station at the UH-West Oahu campus would remain convenient for commuters living in Kapolei and could be a sensible placement to lessen congestion of traffic along a part of Farrington Highway through the business section that already is overloaded. Putting it at Leeward Community College could discourage Kapolei residents from using the transit system instead of driving to work.

Those are factors that city officials are considering in designing not only the length of the system but its route. A more direct line would be least expensive to build but might not lure as many passengers, whose fares will be needed to pay for operation of the system.

"The proposed rail transit system from Kapolei to Honolulu will become the backbone of the transit system, connecting major employment and residential centers to each other and to downtown Honolulu," according to city planners. Changes should not stray from that objective.