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Administration Will Spend $1.8B to Build 20-Mile Railroad on 30-Mile-Wide Island
(CNSNews.com) – The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that $1.55 billion in new federal tax dollars will be allocated for the first-ever Hawaiian Transit Rail system on the island of Oahu, which will serve downtown Honolulu, at a total federal and state cost of $5.1 billion.
The train circuit will be 20 miles long, with 21 stops on an island that is 30 miles wide.
The transit system will span from the lesser populated island area of Kapolei, and will end at Ala Moana Center Station, approximately 1-3 miles from the University of Hawaii and Punahou School, the high school once attended by President Obama.
The most recent DOT announcement brings the total amount of federal funds going to the Rail project to just under $1.8 billion. Funding will not been given in a single appropriation, but will instead be doled out in increments over the coming fiscal years.
An additional $4 million has been obligated from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the “stuimulus”), and $209.9 million is coming from other sources within the DOT. Both the $1.55 billion and the $209.9 million are proposed funding plans, and will be contingent upon future appropriations from Congress.
The $3.358 billion of the project’s $5.1 billion total cost will derive from Hawaiian sources that include but are not limited to excise taxes paid by Oahu businesses and residents, as well as tourists.
Corky
February 14th, 2013
We lived on Oahu (my husband was the commander at Tripler) in the late 90s when they opened H3. (Think interstate highway except not between states). There was an uproar among the “natives” because it was built over burial grounds. This is just more money down the drain because 1) it will never happen and 2) if it did, it isn’t needed. Crappy state BTW
MNHawk
February 14th, 2013
Nothing says “modern transportation system” more than 19th century technology.
So what’s the daily ridership of this choo choo train to be? 2,000? 3,000?
Do the math.
Claudia
February 14th, 2013
Why stop there? Build massive bridges between the islands. No, better yet, build tunnels. Oh, and then get to work on the bridge between California and Hawaii.
the aardvark
February 14th, 2013
They should name it the stoner express or choom express in honor of barry.
todak
February 14th, 2013
Add to the final tally the “unforeseen” costs, such as union slowdowns (hey, we can retire from this project), higher costs of materials in the future, inflation (or more properly, the further devaluation of the worthless federal reserve notes), and it will probably cost $100 billion dollars when all is said and done.
Anonymous
February 14th, 2013
Care to guess who owns the land that needs to be acquired. Chrony Capitalism at its best.,
Hawaiian
February 14th, 2013
That crapfest has been dragging on for 20+ years. Labor unions (and local pols, duh) want it built but nobody else does. Nobody wants it, nobody will ride it. It won’t get built, but the project won’t get finally scrapped until much more of that $5 bil gets wasted. Locals are pretty clueless and are blind to the fact that this mess is what you get after 50+ years of one party rule.
their goes the neighborhood
February 14th, 2013
Won’t the leftist environmentalists go apeshit over this.
Carlos The Jackal
February 14th, 2013
Another beautiful place they’re fucking up in the name of ‘progress’.
Cynic
February 14th, 2013
@MNHawk: Choom-Choom train.
Stranded in Sonoma
February 14th, 2013
@Claudia — I was thinking that they should connect the rail line to the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska.
Tim
February 14th, 2013
Somebody explain to me how this isn’t just a blatant payoff to the unions and local hucksters?
Corruption on the Fast Track!
One Notch Above a Congresscritter
February 14th, 2013
A high speed bullet train, no doubt. Morons.
Eric
February 14th, 2013
I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song. Joni Mitchell
Unruly Refugee
February 14th, 2013
Eric, Bob Dylan came up with the line that says, “a big yellow taxi took away my old man.” Joni calls Dylan a plagiarizer, but she never gives him credit for that line which became the title.
Unruly Refugee
February 14th, 2013
The old ways are better. And cheaper.
http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraft/Sikorsky-S38/IMAGES/S-38-IslandAirways.jpg
serfer62
February 14th, 2013
Hawaii…the land of forever (to build anything public)
The bridge over the Wailuku river in Hilo, Hi was about a 40 ft span. It took 3 times longer to finish then it took the Golden Gate bridge to finish!