Honolulu fixed rail

From dKosopedia

Whether Honolulu should construct a fixed rail mass transit system has been debated for several decades. The funding of a fixed rail system has been the stumbling block on many past occasions because fixed rail by its inherent nature is a very expensive proposition.

1 Raising the funds
2 Timeline
3 Historic commitment
4 Related Links
5 External Links

Raising the funds

The 2005 Hawaii State Legislature passed a bill, which became law without Governor Lingle's signature, that gives the counties the power to raise the excise tax to 4.5 percent from 4 percent to finance transportation projects. For Honolulu that would mean up to $150 million annually to fund mass transit, which could include a rail system.

According to a Honolulu Star-Bulletin article entitled Late deal avoids transit veto and dated July 12, 2005:

The bill also says that the state would collect the tax and charge a 10 percent administrative fee.

Governor Linda Lingle said the counties should collect the tax, and she threatened to veto the bill by today's deadline if the Legislature did not amend the bill to reflect that change in a special session also scheduled for today.

Under the agreement between state and city officials:
Lingle did not get her amendments today. Instead, Senate President Robert Bunda and House Speaker Calvin K. Y. Say agreed to introduce legislation during next year's regular session to have the counties, instead of the state, collect the tax. Bunda and Say also agreed in a letter to "publicly support and work with our respective members to seek their support and subsequent vote for prompt passage of the amendments."
Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann initially said that it would be a financial burden for the city to collect the tax. But he said with a pledge from Lingle that the state will share information and technology and possibly get state funding, he believes the city will be able to take over the function at a substantially lower cost than the $50 million to $60 million he initially estimated.
Senate President Robert Bunda (D, Kaena-Wahiawa-Pupukea) and Calvin K. Y. Say (D, St. Louis Heights-Wilhelmina Rise) advocated that the counties take over collection of the county excise tax surcharge.
[1]

On August 10, 2005 by a vote of 7 to 2, the Honolulu City Council passed Bill 40 that imposes a county surcharge of half a percentage point on top of the 4 percent general excise tax charged by the state. Mayor Hannemann signed the bill thus the excise tax on Oahu would be 4.5 percent on Jan. 1, 2007 and be repealed Dec. 31, 2022.

Voting in favor of the bill were Todd Apo, Romy Cachola, Donovan Dela Cruz, Nestor Garcia, Ann Kobayashi, Gary Okino and Rod Tam. The two against the bill were Charles Djou and Barbara Marshall. [2]

Timeline

In a Honolulu Advertiser article dated Oct. 16, 2005 and entitled Rail Proposals coming, the following timeline was printed:

A tentative schedule for developing mass transit on O'ahu:
December 2005: Public "scoping" meetings to discuss project's purpose, need and alternatives.
Fall 2005-winter 2006: Technical studies, including conceptual design, financial analysis, cost estimation, traffic and transit ridership forecasting, and environmental studies. Also, public information and outreach, including a Web site, newsletter and informational meetings.
Late 2006: Issuance of an alternatives analysis and draft environmental impact study, or EIS.
Winter 2006-07: Hearings on draft EIS.
Early 2007: City selects locally preferred alternative.
Spring 2007: City seeks federal approval to prepare preliminary engineering plans and final environmental impact study.
2007-09: Preparation of final EIS and approval by federal officials.
Sometime in 2009: Construction begins. [3]

In an Advertiser article in 2007 [4], an updated and more detailed timetable was reported:

Timeline of What's to Come
Now that the City Council has selected an outline for a locally preferred alternative for transit, here's a city schedule of what's likely to happen next.
Jan. 1, 2007: The state will begin collecting a half-percentage point surcharge on the general excise tax on O'ahu to help pay for the transit project.
January 2007: City administration will study possible routes for fixed-guideway lines for costs, ridership and environmental concerns to determine a final preferred alignment.
February 2007: City to pick the "minimal operating segment," the part of the project that will be built first.
February 2007: A detailed environmental review of the selected transit area will be conducted, seeking public input to determine possible effects of the project.
June 2007: Preliminary engineering will begin to study the best possible technologies and seek Federal Transit Authority funds to help pay for the line.
Feb. 2009 to Feb. 2010: Final design work.
2009: Construction begins.
2012: City says first segment could begin operations.
2017: Construction complete.

In a June 19, 2007 Star-Bulletin article:

Mayor Mufi Hannemann wants to break ground in 2009 on the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project. The project's time line:
2007
Begin environmental impact statement study

2008
Draft EIS ready, with hearings at midyear
Preparation of final EIS in second half of year

2009
Final EIS issued in early in year
Federal Transit Administration's record of decision issued by midyear [5]

Historic commitment

On December 22, 2006, the Honolulu City Council voted 7 to 2 to select a fixed guideway alternative (whether bus or rail to be decided later) over other transit alternatives. Voting in favor of the fixed guideway were Todd Apo, Romy Cachola, Donovan Dela Cruz, Nestor Garcia, Ann Kobayashi, Gary Okino and Rod Tam. The two who voted against were Charles Djou and Barbara Marshall. The "council members left a decision on the final alignment up to the city administration, saying that the designated route could include both West O'ahu alignments as well as two possible routes through Salt Lake and Honolulu International Airport." [6] The council also passed "a provision that bars the city from spending more money on the rail than it can raise through an excise tax increase, federal grants, and state and private development funds." [7]

On January 6, 2007, Mayor Mufi Hanneman signed Bill 79, passed by the Council in December into law, committing Honolulu to a fixed guideway mass transit system. [8]