Rail

...The lie that tourists pay 30% of the GE Tax is front and center as Gov Green and legislators quickly walk back Green’s fake 2022 campaign promise to eliminate the GE Tax from food and medical care....

... “If my name sounds familiar it's because my dad was President of the Hawaii AFL-CIO and the Business Manager/ Financial Secretary for the Hawaii Carpenters Union Local 745 for over 20 years.”….

... “We had no idea this was in the works,” said Lori Kahikina, HART’s CEO and executive director ....

... Honolulu rail is not alone ....

... starting August 22 to August 26, 2022. The free fare week is timed with the back-to-school jam ....

... HART excuses are nearly Biblical: Plague, Frogs, Fires, and Cracks -- but the real reason slipped out as COVID shut down Hawaii's tourism industry: “After Wasting Billions to Build Rail, is it worth $160 million a year to operate?” ....

... Walk-in customers make up the majority of the 5,790 HOLO card transactions processed in the past fiscal year at the Ala Moana Satellite City Hall ....

... the state of Hawaii has released a report explaining why the rail project will fail no matter where it goes or how much it costs ....

... It was sold to the public on the promise that it would only cost about $4 billion, that it would be completed by 2019 and that the general excise tax surcharge associated with it would end by 2022 ....

...HART’s new plan appears to contain “overly optimistic assumptions about revenues, ridership and costs, and this could saddle local taxpayers with unstated liabilities in the future.”....

... The former chairman of the University of Hawaii’s civil engineering department says aloha ....

... The US$119 million contract is an extension of existing construction and engineering services Stantec is providing to HART and will run through the end of 2026, with the possibility of a 5-year extension to expected project completion in 2031 ....

... The vague language in the proposal lacks any metrics for measuring success, similar to another business-focused tax credit whose value to the state is dubious ...

... HART's recovery plan was shipped off to the FTA today with revenue projections that I think are too high ....

... Fat chance of the Feds giving us that much now ....

... the one thing we can rely on concerning the Honolulu rail project is the long list of unanswered questions ....

... HART now says it will cost $9.9 billion to not finish its rail project by 2031 ....

... Iwasa has valuable insights into the operations of the rail project because she also is a non-voting member of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation ....

... What do these three multi billion dollar failures have in common? ....

..."We submitted a Recovery Plan to the FTA, proposing to amend the Full Funding Grant Agreement" (not quite) ....

"...We submitted a Recovery Plan to the FTA, proposing to amend the Full Funding Grant Agreement to the following scope: 18.75 miles/19 stations through Downtown, to the Civic Center Station, which is 1.25 miles and 2 stations short of Ala Moana Center...."

... Mayor Blangiardi said, “Even though this was a very quick turn-around trip for me, the time I spent with the Administrator was well worth the trip" ....

"...Art’s management background at Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers Local Union 293 and his experience on the Planning Commission make him the perfect candidate...."

... The Honolulu Rate Commission will be taking public testimony on proposed fare policy changes affecting TheBus and TheHandi-Van at its January 24th and February 8th meetings ....

... Ethics Commission Chair Melinda Wood stated: “Mr. Harris has the right mix of public policy, litigation, and managerial experience to excel in this role." ....

... Using the Honolulu rail project as an example, the New York Times wants to know why so many infrastructure projects suffer from such large cost overruns ....

... these debates are meaningless ....

...Translation: The Legislature took the counties' share of the state TAT away but let them impose their own TAT.  I'm giving it to rail -- so, in effect, other city services have been cut to fund rail but -- like a shell game -- with so many moving parts, the public has been deceived....

... projected revenues from the tax fall short of what the project needs to cover its budget shortfalls ....

... in yet another failure of leadership, Schatz misses an opportunity to put the rail nightmare behind us ....

... Hawaii is still in a state of emergency, tourism has slowed, businesses are closing and unemployment is high. The economy will take years to recover ....

... there is a teensy disagreement over the value of the land. HART offered Hughes $13.5 million; Hughes thought it was worth “about” $100 million more ....

... The memo concludes that the State did not have the power under the Hawaii Constitution to provide for four extra HART board members.  Thus, we can basically ignore the extra folks and conduct business as if they weren’t around ....

... Honolulu rail project get a portion of the revenues? ....

... Then on August 3 came devastating confirmation from a respected FTA agent ....

...What you might not have seen is the difficulty the HART board is having making decisions....

"...For decades, infrastructure in Hawaii has suffered from a systemic lack of investment...."

... the line is costing about $15,000 per resident ....

... Aalto's movies given major funding by rail supporters ....

... In order to steer a consulting contract to its former Board Chair, Colleen Hanabusa, Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), a federally-funded rail transit project, imposed the following narrowly tailored requirements on bidders ....

... the most expensive megaproject per capita in the world ....

“...People need to know what the options are and what the costs are, and what the real future of rail looks like....”

... Blangiardi: “I had nothing to do with that contract” ....

... Marked “Confidential (Not for Distribution),” the document contains analyses of both the original plan for the rail and 27 alternatives ....

... In a special Stadium Authority Board Meeting this morning (Thursday, May 6), the Board confirmed and voted for an early demolition of the existing stadium location ....

... The document, marked “CONFIDENTIAL (NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION),” says that stopping the rail at Middle Street could lower costs, provide long-term flexibility for route changes and fleet expansion, and benefit from future driverless technologies .... 

"... Uno said he has come to the conclusion that the rail is neither a construction project nor a transportation project. Instead, it is “a political project” — one in which all concerns about costs, waste and transparency are subordinate to political goals ...."

... “This rail service began as one of those ‘shovel ready’ projects funded by the Obama-Biden stimulus program a decade ago. While never completed, it’s still digging a deeper money pit for taxpayer dollars” ....

... Joe Uno, HART Board member, speaks in his private capacity as a citizen to host Keli‘i Akina about whether a ‘Plan C’ may help salvage the troubled project ....

... it is premature to commit funding for major new rail transit projects before we have some idea of the extent of transit ridership in the first several years after nationwide vaccinations ....