9/17/23 - HART projects $580 million surplus at completion (next decade)
6/29/23 - Some HART board members say Kahikina could pay greater deference
6/29/23 - The rail doesn't quite stop at Pearlridge
6/25/23 - Rail is finally ready to roll (the first part anyway)
6/17/23 - Rail system is named "Skyline"
2/22/23 - Construction on Dillingham scheduled to last through 2026
10/1/22 - FTA approves shorted rail route
8/30/22 - Rail system moving into trial runs
8/5/22 - Cracks in concrete could delay rail opening
7/12/22 - Former consultant reassigned after raising design issues
6/5/22 - HART submits rail recovery plan to FTA
3/20/22 - Shorter route could save over $200 million in legal fees
3/16/22 - Blangiardi cuts rail route short
12/5/21 - David Shapiro: HART's continuing free ride
11/21/21 - Rail numbers have been shifty (David Shapiro)
11/18/21 - Rail deficit estimate cut to "only" $2 billion
10/10/21 - Heavyweights in favor of raising hotel room taxes to pay for rail
10/10/21 - David Shapiro: rail leaders need to show that they know what they're doing
6/28/21 - Rail project continues to face uncertainty
4/2/21 - Lori Kahikina Q&A
3/11/21 - Rail project has a $3 billion shortfall with no answers
1/3/21 - All David Shapiro is saying is give Kahikina a chance
12/28/20 - Lori Kahikina named interim chief of rail project
12/24/20 - Robbins leaves with rail line from Kapolei to Halawa scheduled to open in 2021
12/17/20 - Robbins not expected to be renewed
11/20/20 - Robbins finally moving on from P3
11/18/20 - Looking back at the 8/31/2008 Advertiser, the project was due to break ground in December 2009 at a cost of $3.7 billion
11/18/20 - Caldwell says cost of rail up to $11 billion and won't be complete until 2033
11/13/20 - Nevertheless Robbins persists in submitting P3 report
11/1/20 - All Andrew Robbins is saying, is give P3 a chance
10/25/20 - Kirk Caldwell: pulling out of PPP and steps to get back on track
10/25/20 - Editorial: HART must recalibrate
10/25/20 - David Shapiro: a mad rush is imprudent
10/22/20 - HART discussing building rail in phases
10/15/20 - Dennis Callan says they are still real solutions possible
[10/9/20] Caldwell wants to put the heat on Robbins
[3/4/20] Two new bus routes planned to augment rail system
[2/27/20] Rail contractor snags lines closing Dillingham Blvd.
[12/29/19] Hawaiian names possibilities for train stations [David Shapiro]
[9/9/19] Yamanoha well-suited for HART
[7/14/19] Heidi Tsuneyoshi seeking more information from HART
[5/8/19] FTA insisting city commit $25 million this year before releasing more funds
[4/19/19] City now plans to open segments of rail in 2020 and 2023
[4/14/19] Hart committed to finishing rail to Ala Moana
[4/4/19] Middle Street better than Ala Moana for transfers [Dennis Callan]
[4/1/19] Stopping rail at Middle Street might save only $450 million
[3/31/19] Lee Cataluna: debacle is right
[1/19/19] HART responds that many of the issues raised by the audit have been addressed and most of the recommendations of the audit have been or are being implemented
[1/18/19] City auditor finds HART violated procurement requirements
[11/7/18] Architects say to change rail route to U.H.-Manoa because of future flooding
[11/2/18] Caldwell signs bill to allow City to help pay for rail
[10/21/18] State audit of rail transit not going smoothly
[3/11/18] Slater and Roth call for rail to end at Middle Street
[10/3/17] Caught this discussion on Olelo on Option 2A which is an alternative street level rail system from Middle Street. The panel seemed pretty intelligent and experienced. (but see 2/5/17 and 2/8/17 below)
[9/19/17] Mufi on Andrew Robbins (page 22)
[9/6/17] City Council votes to extend excise tax surcharge to 2030
[9/6/17] Ige signs into law the $2.4 billion bailout package
[9/2/17] House votes 31-15 in favor of rail deal
[8/30/17] State Senate votes 16-9 in favor for rail bailout bill
[8/29/17] Rail bill passes out of committee 5-4
[8/25/17] House and Senate announce $2.37 billion rail bailout package / yelling ensues, Caldwell walks out of meeting
[8/1/17] Andrew Robbins gets a second chance
[7/13/17] City Council authorizes $350 million of bonds to get rail to Middle Street
[6/20/17] Randall Roth says it's time to cut our losses
[6/20/17] Lawmakers haven’t yet agreed on the details, but leaders in the state House and Senate announced Monday that they plan to hold a special session this summer to try to resolve their impasse over how to provide more funding for the city’s 20-mile rail project.
[6/8/17] Motor vehicle weight taxes, bus fares and parking rates will go up under a 2018 budget package approved by the Honolulu City Council on Wednesday.
The budget package was highlighted by skirmishes over what fees and rates would go up and which would not. The Caldwell administration said “revenue enhancements” were necessary — without raising property tax rates — largely to deal with rising fixed costs and collective bargaining increases, as well the anticipated costs of operation and maintenance of the rail line.
[6/8/17] The Council’s 6-3 decision on Wednesday, which hinged on Councilman Trevor Ozawa’s swing vote, authorizes up to $350 million in city general obligation bonds for rail. Those funds will help cover the contracts to build the system as far as Middle Street, and future general excise tax surcharge dollars are expected to eventually repay the bonds.
Without that authorization Wednesday, work on the transit system’s elevated concrete pathway and its stations would have stalled at Aloha Stadium in early 2018, and the rail agency overseeing construction, unable to pay its bills, would have started shedding staff and trimming its operations to a bare minimum this August, project officials said.
[5/5/17] A divided state Legislature closed out the turbulent 2017 session and headed home Thursday without approving any bill to provide more funding for rail, but Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said he plans to press lawmakers for a new rail funding agreement that could be ratified in a special session later this year.
In a rare closing-day leadership shake-up, House Speaker Joseph Souki resigned from his post at the request of his colleagues Thursday morning, and House lawmakers voted to elevate House Majority Leader Scott Saiki to the speaker’s job in a final floor session that Souki did not attend.
In the Senate, Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Jill Tokuda made a tearful speech praising her staff and putting her colleagues on notice that she has further political plans.
Tokuda’s colleagues have agreed to remove her from the powerful Ways and Means post, which controls all tax and appropriations measures in the Senate. Tokuda has described that as a “power grab” related to the sometimes bitter rail debate.
Souki thanked the people of Hawaii and the members of the House in his resignation letter, “especially those who have stood with me through thick and thin.”
He said he regretted that lawmakers were unable to “do the work of the people” by reaching agreement this year on bills to provide billions of dollars in new funding for the Honolulu rail project, and on a bill to allow physicians to prescribe lethal medications to people with terminal illnesses.
The decision to remove Souki didn’t sit well with some lawmakers, including Rep. Marcus Oshiro and Rep. Sharon Har, who called the removal of Souki “unprecedented.”
[5/4/17] Tokuda and Souki to be ousted due to rail
[4/21/17] Cayetano ad urges Trump to withhold funding for Honolulu rail
[2/8/17] At-grade light rail won't work says Krishniah Murray
[2/5/17] Salvage the Rail report touts at-grade rail
[12/25/16 Randall Roth] Rail was supposed to cost $3 billion … then $4.6 billion … then $5.2 billion. The latest official estimate is $8.1 billion … but the city reportedly is thinking about raising it to $9.5 billion.
The city claims that the percentage of commuters who use public transportation will increase from 6 percent to 7.4 percent once rail has been built. But most cities have experienced a decline in bus ridership as money is diverted from the existing bus system to pay for rail operations and maintenance. The combined rate for bus and rail is usually less than was the rate for just the bus.
It’s not too late to convert the existing guideway to use by bus rapid transit. Some of the saved money could then be used to reduce traffic congestion, such as by installing flyovers and bypasses in chokepoint areas like the Middle Street merge; adding new contraflow and bus-on-shoulder options; adding new traffic lanes to existing roads; and expanding Honolulu’s bus system, such as by increasing the number of express buses that go where commuters want to go, rather than eliminating most of them, as is part of the current rail plan.
[12/3/16] Rail price tag could rise to $9.5 billion
[10/28/16] Nohara to replace Hanabusa on rail board
[10/28/16] Interim CEO hired for one year
[10/17/16] Caldwell and Charles Djou disagree over how to pay for rail.
[9/30/16] Local rail leaders have raised their estimate yet again for how much it will cost to complete the cash-strapped 20-mile transit project, now putting the price tag at more than $8.6 billion.
They’ve also added another year of delay to rail’s schedule, mostly thanks to the ongoing dilemma about how to fund the elevated project’s final leg into town. Rail leaders now estimate that train cars will start running across the full line from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center starting in December 2025.
Originally, under the city’s deal with federal transit officials, the rail was supposed to cost $5.26 billion. The full line was to start running in January 2020.
[9/29/16] Years before any trains will carry commuters across the island, cracks are forming in the plastic padding used to give the train tracks a level surface, and strands in three of the tendons that help keep the guideway structure in place have snapped apart, according to reports issued by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and the rail project’s federal oversight agency.
[9/1/16] Both remaining candidates for Honolulu mayor are now on the same page, saying the city must build an elevated rail line all the way to Ala Moana Center.
Former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou, who is challenging Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s re-election bid, said Wednesday that the message federal transit officials gave to the city this week requires him to back off his position to seek alternatives to heavy rail to get from Middle Street to Ala Moana.
“We have to do rail, we have to take it to Ala Moana,” Djou said. “It has to be elevated, and it has to be heavy rail, period.”
Caldwell and Council Chairman Ernie Martin said Tuesday that Federal Transit Administration leaders are firm that the rail line needs to be constructed to Ala Moana or the city may be in breach of an agreement that gave the city up to $1.55 billion in federal dollars. Also, city leaders were unsuccessful in their attempts to get the FTA to provide more funding to make up a shortfall of up to $2 billion.
Djou’s message through the first three months of the campaign had been that rather than commit to building elevated rail to Ala Moana as supported by Caldwell and former Mayor Peter Carlisle, the city should explore every option from a bus rapid transit system to putting the line at ground level through Kalihi.
But on Wednesday, Djou said he is now willing to consider asking the state Legislature for an extension of Oahu’s 0.5 percent surcharge on the general excise tax — but only if, as mayor, he determines the city has no other alternative.
[8/31/16] City leaders are expected to return to the Legislature this winter to seek an extension of the 0.5 percent general excise tax surcharge for the $8 billion rail project because their efforts to secure additional federal dollars were shot down by top federal transit officials in San Francisco this week.
The request, however, is likely to be met with skepticism by state lawmakers frustrated that they once again are being asked to take the political hit for a project that has climbed in price by more than $2 billion since they agreed two sessions ago to a five-year extension of the surcharge through 2027.
The Federal Transit Administration also made it clear during two days of meetings that halting rail construction at Middle Street — rather than in the Ala Moana area [at least to Aloha Tower], as the city originally planned — is not acceptable, and the agency warned that stopping the line short could jeopardize $1.55 billion in federal grants, city officials said.
City and federal transit officials announced in the spring that building rail now likely will cost a projected $8 billion for the full 20 miles, from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center, with 21 rail stations. That’s about $2 billion more than the cost estimate made two years ago. Consequently, they said, there would be only enough money to reach the Middle Street station, about 5 miles short of Ala Moana.
Both Mayor Kirk Caldwell and City Council Chairman Ernie Martin said Tuesday they asked FTA officials for additional funding and were told none would be made available.
One bright spot resulting from the talks, city officials said, is an optimistic expectation that the FTA will consider the city’s request to extend the deadline for coming up with a recovery plan for the project funding beyond the current Dec. 31 deadline.
The Honolulu delegation that traveled to the FTA’s western regional office included Caldwell, Martin, Council Transportation Chairman Joey Manahan, Honolulu Authority for Rail Transportation Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa and HART acting Executive Director Michael Formby.
Leading discussions on the FTA side was Acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers.
Caldwell told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday night, “They said no to any additional dollars under the New Starts program.” He added that the city was told all the money for that program has been committed to other projects.
Martin, in a news release, said the city delegation was told there are 60 other transit-related projects being funded through the program.
Caldwell said this was his third time asking for additional federal transit dollars. “That doesn’t mean I won’t do it again,” he said, adding that the November election and a new presidential administration could bring new opportunities.
“With the end of this cycle, with the new year starting, with a new administration in place and maybe a different makeup in Congress, and a new budget cycle, there’s a possibility, and that’s why I would ask again,” Caldwell said.
In a surprising change in position, Martin said Tuesday he intends to join Caldwell at the Legislature in seeking an extension of the surcharge, especially because the FTA made it clear that pausing the project at Middle Street would be unacceptable and jeopardize the $1.55 billion federal share.
“I’ve been opposed to going back to the Legislature to ask for a further extension of the GET surcharge, but given the FTA’s position, it is clear that we don’t have a choice,” Martin said in a separate statement. “This project is too often viewed as a city issue but it’s a quality of life issue for the people of Oahu who are struggling with some of the worst traffic congestion in the country.”
[8/31/16] http://khon2.com/2016/08/30/fta-on-rail-route-downtown-minimum-ala-moana-ideal/
[8/19/16] Dan Grabauskas resigns
[8/7/16] Hawaii's is not the only city with rail budget woes
[7/31/16] Rail’s concrete pathway now snakes more than 8 miles, stretching from East Kapolei almost to Aloha Stadium. Soon, a new construction contract will extend it as far as Middle Street. From there, the rail system’s endpoint, Ala Moana Center, sits 4.3 miles away.
Any solution to keep building toward Ala Moana Center — should city leaders opt to pursue that route — would likely involve a patchwork of funding sources.
[7/8/16] In the latest whistleblower lawsuit to be filed in relation to Honolulu’s rail project, a former Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. manager alleges the firm failed for years to adequately follow environmental laws while building the line’s first 10 miles to Aloha Stadium.
The suit claims that local Kiewit supervisors repeatedly dismissed and downplayed his efforts to keep the firm compliant and that Kiewit violated Hawaii’s Whistleblower’s Protection Act in eventually letting him go. It seeks unspecified compensation for damages.
[6/17/16] Caldwell recommends stopping rail at Middle Street
[4/22/16] As the Honolulu rail agency’s new board chairwoman, former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa must now help guide the largest public works project in state history as it faces growing financial uncertainty and eroding public confidence.
Hanabusa’s fellow Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation volunteer board members unanimously voted to appoint her to the top post Thursday, the day after Mayor Kirk Caldwell reappointed her to a new term that will last through 2021.
“This decision did not come easily. However, I believe the board is at an important juncture,” Hanabusa said moments after becoming chairwoman. “I am doing it because I feel the board has to be very accountable to the public. I feel that we can work together and do the public’s bidding.”
Their vote came during a spirited, daylong meeting in which board members said that HART employees give them “fuzzy numbers” instead of the budget details they need to provide oversight, called for reforms to give them more authority and met in closed session to evaluate the performance of HART’s embattled executive director, Dan Grabauskas.
Hanabusa will serve the rest of former board Chairman Don Horner’s term, which expires this summer, plus a year after that. Vice Chairman Damien Kim briefly served as interim chairman prior to the vote for Hanabusa. Kim, who serves as business manager and financial secretary for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1186, is expected to be appointed chairman after Hanabusa.
[4/12/16] Don Horner, who once oversaw the state’s largest financial institution, will no longer help oversee the state’s largest public works project.
Horner tendered his resignation to Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Monday as the rail agency’s volunteer board chairman, as the transit project faces rising costs and growing uncertainty.
Horner’s move follows several weeks of upheaval for rail management, in which the city’s top elected leaders have repeatedly put in writing their crumbling faith in the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s handling of the project, now estimated to cost nearly $7 billion. HART leaders say the skyrocketing costs are mainly due to construction market forces beyond their control.
Horner delivered his resignation letter to Honolulu Hale five days after Council Chairman Ernie Martin called on Horner and HART Executive Director Dan Grabauskas to resign, and several days before a critical report from the city auditor’s office will be released. In a news conference Monday, Caldwell said that he had already planned to ask for Horner’s resignation prior to Martin’s request. Caldwell was out of state on vacation last week and had scheduled to meet Horner upon his return.
“I just want to make absolutely certain that there’s confidence in this project. And I’ve see an erosion of confidence in this project, both by my administration, by the City Council … and by the public at large,” Caldwell said Monday.
In his resignation letter, Horner said “too often in politics, the focus becomes shooting the messenger of unpleasant news rather than collaboratively working on solutions.” In a separate letter responding to Martin’s concerns, Horner praised HART staff and said Martin’s concerns were a surprise “since we had met a few days earlier, and your concern was not discussed.”
Horner retired as CEO of First Hawaiian Bank in late 2011, after being affiliated with the institution for more than three decades. He also served as the bank’s chairman and president.
Martin is Caldwell’s top political rival and considering a mayoral run against him later this year. Caldwell’s predecessor, former mayor Peter Carlisle, appointed Horner to the HART board for the agency’s 2011 inception. Caldwell said earlier this year that his own reputation is on the line with rail.
