You say ineptitude but in truth it’s corruption austerity. Look at Brightline, HSR can definitely be built, but apparently only in service of the private sector.

Yeah, they really are best in class for this

​@@MelGibsonFanbrightline is basically a public private partnership that leans towards the private side. i would recommend the wendover video if you are interested

Eh, it's not just the US; it's a North American thing. We have similar issues regarding time and cost overruns here in Canada as well.

Its the car and fossil-fuel lobby throwing monkey wrenches into the gears wherever they can

driverless does not mean monitorless. There are people watching through cameras every second of it's operation just incase there is an emergency.

I believe they close it early due to "safety and security concerns". I'm sure as the rail line is extended beyond the Stadium, the hours will extend.

They’re planning to eventually extend operation hours to 10PM or Midnight as they gauge ridership. Definitely by the time, Phase 2 of the project opens in Summer 2025.

@@_Pixie_10 The point is, if trains can operate until late at night with a driver, why can't they do the same without one? Although they can, this project is just weird.

Second phase opening that runs by the airport will have times extended to 12am

I noticed that too, and having been on the Big Island it's obvious how they named it .... I drove around the circumference of Oahu in about two and a half hours, but it took all day to drive right around Hawaii ... I.E. Kona to Kona.

On the tsunami part, it's amazing that the tsunami emergency center is in Ewa, on flat land, and ready to be the first in the water if a tsunami was to happen.

A metro train from Honolulu to the big island would be sweet

@@PInk77W1 I'll take the 737 thanks !

@@phugemawl yeap

Totally agree... I never understood why they did it like that. I suppose it was easier to construct near Waipahu.

Yea I remember when they started the project. I thought why are they starting out here? Airport to downtown was needed way more.

It isn't that weird. In most of rail history, the rail comes before the city.

@@thastayapongsak4422 That heavily depends on the continent.

​@@thastayapongsak4422 maybe in the US, but not in Europe

And then viciously attacked when they find out fares have dropped due to lack of ridership because "things"

@@Mike__B ...and then rebound once people realize how much easier it is to get around on public transit as opposed to spending hours sitting in traffic.

I'm not sure that the average us rail service would be described as "loved" by the general public.

@@scottie89901because they are shite.

Generally speaking yes. But how many automated metro's does the USA have now? Like none besides this... And it's Hawaii. Not exactly representative of mainlander US values or thinking...@@chrishardy3473

Yeah. The entire reason they built the line was to encourage transit-oriented development in areas that had room for new construction, since Honolulu has very expensive housing prices (comparable to San Diego, but with lower incomes). It was good project on paper, but I think the extremely long return time on investment is going to sour on taxpayers, and I'm skeptical of the $500m/mile construction costs.

The 7 in New York was built in the same way across the farmlands of Queens

I'd bet some with insider knowledge bought land around the proposed stations under a maze of holding companies, for the potential of future development.

100% this sadly happens with every land development. The only real way to prevent it for the transit authority to pretty much buy out the TOD site (400m radius of a station) buiid temporary surface lots than auction off land later to private developers... Or you know, work with existing land-owners to improve their land. Both have been used before but as long as affordable housing and bustling town centres get build I'm all for it...@@Downtown.Don90

@@Downtown.Don90 HART should have bought the lands around the new stations as well, then proceed to develop those lands or rent them. This is what a lot of transit agencies have been doing, i.e. Singapore MRT, JR East, Hong Kong MTR.

Seems wrong to rip up tracks already there that they could use. Later the elevated ones will cost so much, they’ll regret it.

@@TheBooban Tokyo is actually doing the same nowadays. Removing all at-grade crossings is very beneficial, because not only it can make train journeys faster, it will also lead to fewer incidents especially involving idiot drivers in rail crossings. It's a win-win situation.

@@TheBooban it was necessary, because the planned future frequencies along the Perth to Thornlie corridor (the bit that is being elevated) will be great enough that the boom gates would be down more often than not if they weren't elevated. I'm expecting at least 4 minute peak headways, 7.5 minute off peak headways once the Thornlie Cockburn link is finished, with potential for shorter headways in the future

@@TheBooban By that logic we'd never have any subways anywhere.

I spent half my life waiting for the boom gates to open getting from Belmont to Vic Park , bring it on👍🍻

I love taking TheBus and Skyline. Even though I have access to a car I choose to take public transportation almost everywhere I go. It's only $40 USD a month for both bus and rail which I feel is a pretty good deal

agreed would like to be less car heavy community. but rail avoids major school areas of Oahu, and it seems to run from airport to not far from the Disney resort.. Plus the destruction of countless local business during construction and gentrification of areas with rail access. Which kinda displaces locals from the areas. If you think about it the way they planned it out and executed it kind of defeats the purpose of serving the community....

@@Devildanncer I disagree actually, because (besides the Pearl Highlands station which is truly a disservice to its community in its current state) ultimately Skyline is meant to supplement the already existing and pretty decent neighbourhood service that TheBus provides and funnel those riders to major destinations such as Pearlridge, the Airport, LCC and eventually Ala Moana. The main point they seem to be pushing is that it's better for the commuter than spending an hour and a half during pau hana hour driving home. Almost all schools have existing bus service either directly from neighbourhoods or from a transit center, bypassing the need for rail service to really begin with (although I have seen news articles highlighting schools that desperately need better service). As for the gentrification of areas with rail access, I highly doubt that'll actually happen because the state is either directly buying land (as is the case in Iwilei) for low income TOD or is working with Kamehameha Schools in the case of Waipahu to replace the current Times Supermarket with low income TOD as well. Considering the fact that people have rights and the state can't simply eminent domain their way into the "ideal" Skyline metro, I think they did a decent job of balancing speed and convenience. If they added too many stations, it would run too slow and you'd be better off driving or taking the express buses to get into town. In most cases (best exemplified by the Waipahu Transit Station), they put rail stations at points where multiple local and main bus routes converged making transferring to the Skyline no inconvenience for people who already rode the bus. Middle Street might seem like a senseless place to end phase 2 for the uneducated resident, but it will actually make the Skyline a "train to somewhere" rather than a "train to nowhere" as it is right now because Kalihi Transit Center is probably the only place capable of giving the Skyline an actually good bus connection to town. Now as for all the local businesses hurt during construction, I could probably cite some "forecasted economic benefit" projection made by the state but that would be seeing the forest but missing the trees. I get take out at Bob's sometimes and it will suck when they move out of their location that they've been at for so long. In the interim though, the state is providing financial relief for businesses affected in the region. HART has also been actually listening to people. Once every few fridays the Rick Hamada show hosts Lori Kahikina (HART's CEO) and another guest where people can phone in and ask questions or voice concerns and small things. The blue signs along dillingham or even small changes in the coning have come from people phoning in on during that show. Obviously the bigger problem is the fact that the Dillingham construction makes it a very unpleasant place to drive through, and although many people don't want it there for those reasons, what's to say the same wouldn't have happened if the rail went through King Street or Nimitz? It has to get to town somehow and by God's grace I don't think I'd trust the state to dig a tunnel without causing some major issues that would be bigger than the traffic nightmare during construction that we have to face now. Conclusion? Growth involves some pain, in this case a lot of pain for a *lot* of people. Will it be worth it? I hope so. Only time will tell.

@@Devildanncer if I remember correctly Skyline will also be built all the way to UH Manoa. Currently the open section is already servicing UH West Oahu and LCC.

H3 took several decades to complete, it’s no surprise that rail will take longer, too imo.

iirc the Northern Line started also as a new line built in the 1930s in the middle of nowhere, then entire communities were built around the new railway stations.

Good idea

Really? I live in Kirkland and have been staring at that stupid thing out my window for the last 6 years and still don't see a train running. I admit that I am not informed on the timeline and costs but it seems that there have been a few setbacks like the tunnel explosion a couple of years back in TMR, and two years ago I remember them hammering in hundreds of piers into the ground long after things had been built ( probably to stabilize the soil). That area was practically a swamp before.

​@@robhersey1796The section between Brossard and Gare Centrale is open now but the other sections aren't finished yet

Been eager to ride the REM from Dix-trent to downtown. Want to sit in front being it fully automated.

Or maybe the also completed Greater Jakarta LRT in September 2023.

Istanbul built an entirely new airport but did not build a subway line to it that connects to the center of the biggest city in Europe. Idiocracy knows no bounds

The maintenance building and stabling yard are together called train depot. Depot is complex and needs to be constructed first, as viaduct, rail track and stations can be proceeded concurrently and easier.

The maintenance and storage facility, as well as the rail operations center, are located on 43 acres adjacent to Leeward Community College in Pearl City. That’s six miles east of the end of the line in Kapolei. That contract was awarded in 2010. Why didn’t they start building from there? “Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced today the contract to design and build the Maintenance and Storage Facility (MSF) for the Honolulu Rail Transit Project has been awarded to a joint venture of Kiewit/Kobayashi. “I congratulate the winning team. Their proposal was scored highest by the selection committee and offers the best value to taxpayers,” said Mayor Hannemann. The MSF contract award is approximately $195 million. This is about $60 million less than budgeted for the MSF.” honolulu dot gov 6/24/2010 BTW, after all the change orders were added in, the final cost was $281.8 million. The real reason they started it out in the middle of nowhere? “Mayor Carlisle, now a lame duck, says he will ‘do everything [he] can to get rail far enough along so that it cannot possibly be stopped,’” thetransportpolitic 8/18/2012

Another cracking Fred, really enjoy them. A little addition to that as well at about the same time. It's an underslung launching gantry rather than what was said in the video. The rods mentioned above would only be in the temporary case and usually only required for balanced cantilever construction. However, the post-tensioning is a must. The epoxy glue mentioned is only required for internally post-tensioned box girders. Option also exists for external post-tensioning (inside the void) which doesn't require glued joints.

Thank you, I was really wondering about that. That was reminding me of the concrete panel that fell out of the Big Dig tunnel and killed one person due to a failed epoxy bond.

@@ZetaPyro If you want to read more, one of the several types used is Pilgrim CBC-6. It does bond except before the form travelers move, the segments are PTed with the rods or wire.

Could have had a decent rail system...sigh oh wells

Frank Fasi limo is the greatest thing in Hawaii. Today it is called it The Bus.

And...Ben Cayetano became governor. It should've been Fasi instead. We'd have had this thing in place for decades instead of since last June 30th. The Fasi years were great.

The esteemed city council also voted in down in the mid 90s. It could have been built in 20th century dollars instead of our current ripoff. RIP Mayor Fasi!

Psshhhh this PoS was made so they could shut the unions up with a new bottomless pit construction project like H3. You know how you eliminate traffic? Letting people work from home and commute and staggered times for businesses that don't require in person customer service. The Zip line was decent but down town the design of the roads from the 1960s failed to project future population and car use. That area is so congested due to inadequate on and off ramp design. And from what I understand there are no bathrooms in the stations. Almost 20 years and it still isn't done and people's property was taken using "imminent domain" in a place where property is scarce.

Compared to the rest of the world.

Shows how ignorant you and many of the population are. They already said it will relieve LESS THAN 1% OF TRAFFIC. Do you not understand that?

@@birthoftheubermensch1285that’s the issue, there are like 100 people who don’t want it, and they have been punching it back making it cost more then using it as a reason for it

$10b wasted so far., double the budget and hardly anyone riding it.. 3200 a day? Now divide that by $10b spend so far, not including maintenance.. Its pretty idiotic. $10b would go a long way to fix infrastructure. But keep wishing ..

@@jl-io3vw i don't see how it makes sense to consider ridership numbers of an early-service, incomplete line as the total sum of its value. it doesn't go into the city center yet and not many people both live and work along the current route. of course there is no wonder there is not a high ridership right now. that will change as the line extends to workplaces in the city airport route opens next year. it's not far off, let's see what kind of change that brings so we can get a gauge of how things are going to improve as construction continues towards ala moana 10 billion is the total allocated cost to complete the line, not the amount spent already. yes, we could have put the money into other things. what would we have then? more buses replaced, more roads repaved, etc... after everything we would have spent the 10 billion and still need a train. and we would also miss out on the economic benefits that rail corridors inherently bring. this is worth the price tag because it is a tangible, game-changing, and permanent improvement to the city. buses will always need replaced. roads will always need repaved. now and continuing into the future, more billions will be allocated to these projects and they will still get done. but taking a city from not having a train to having one is a massive step forward. would it be better if it wasn't so expensive? obviously. we all want that. and we do need to hold our leaders accountable to execute this project more effectively moving into the future. having said that, it is absolutely untrue to call it a waste

Bom dia

Howzit bradah how you stay?

Mahalo for the video. 🤙

@@2ry1nanytime

Aloha! Very intriguing piece of work!

Congratulations, your marriage has held firm all these years!

Why not all of North America?

I live in Chicago and we have great public transit here. Visited NYC and Boston last year and the same is true there. The simple truth is that across longer distances, we just don't need it. Case in point: I needed to fly to Jacksonville last weekend. I took the bus to the train, train to the airport, flew to Jacksonville in a total of around 4 hours total.

@@adamcheklat7387 because the video was about the United States. Of course we all want good mass transit across all of North America (it would be like me replying to your comment saying "why not all over the world?")

@@UnexpectedPlay Specifically Hawaii, but.

@@-Katastrophe Yeah saying Hawaii would have made more sense but the comment was talking about the United States generally which is why I said "United States" instead of just Hawaii.

Both places run and controlled by jackasses!

And what's worse, only people with motor vehicles can use the "big dig"!

our rail’s first full time CEO was former MBTA GM dan (grabby) grabauskas, who was forced to resign after some sort of dispute there. Coincidentally, he was forced to resign from the rail “authority” here too. Not an enviable track record.

@@user-dj7wv5ok2x OK, I won't get, nevermind, it WAS for traffic....now I will be quiet.

@@gsn794 no, great record...thats how things work. Our mayor became a secratery at DC, then quit and became commish of hockey...he sucked as a mayor. Point?

It's a ten minute walk to the nearest station but I bought a bike and it took me less than 4 min. I ride the skyline for work 5 days a week.

this is the problem with many rail systems in the US. current infrastructure is built around ppl having cars. rail systems are built around current infrastructure. this means rail stations are usually in inconvenient places that you'd probably have to drive to. the second problem with that is once you leave a station you have another long walk ahead of you to get to where you want to go. most ppl then end up feeling like its not worth it and those rail systems end up being failures. lets hope this one doesn't fail.

​@@2ry1nare there good places to park (your bike) near your station?

@@illiiilli24601 There are bike racks BUT, you better have a good lock. Thick U steel locks. Two would be good. It takes a grinder to break it.

@@illiiilli24601 Also, you can take your bike with you inside the skyline. The skyline has bike racks in the middle carriage. The edge of the stairs stations have bike wheel channels to push your bike up or down the stairs.

Exactly

But but the yanks who visited once on vacation are in the comments saying it's a waste of taxpayer money!!

​@@d.b.cooper1Let them say it all they want; they don't see the amount of money they waste in traffic jams.

@@d.b.cooper1 Those tourists clearly never drove the H1 at rush our like my family did. It was brutal 20 years ago and today it's even worse.

The Waikiki extension might not come until closer to 2040 at the earliest 😂

@@safuu202 Ala Moana is not gonna be finished until 2040 lmao

It’s not going to Waikiki, just Ala Moana. Remember that you can’t take luggage on our bus system, so you’ll have to catch a cab, uber, etc from the station to get to your hotel. Rail to “civic center,” the currently planned eastern terminus will be completed in 2031 for $9.93 billion, but their “planning” is done at P65, or 65% probability. The final 1.2 miles to the original eastern terminus of Ala Moana will cost another $1.37 billion ($11.3 billion total) but there’s no timetable because there’s no funding. Once they reach Ala Moana, they may have to change transit technology to go further because city council approved development projects in the Ala Moana that will block the train from going any further. “the rail agency is now warning officials that the train won't be able to fit through that corridor. ‘There's been recent developments, real estate developments in the Ala Moana area, which essentially block any future extension of the route,’ Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Director and CEO Andrew Robbins said.” hawaiinewsnow 11/18/2017 “We have to get to UH; it might not be the same technology, maybe there might be better integration,” said HART’s CEO, Lori Kahikina.” hawaiinewsnow 11/29/23

“civic center” will be completed in 2031, 1.2 miles and two stations short of the original 20.1 mile, 21 station line that was supposed to be in full revenue operations by 1/31/2020 at a total cost of $5,121,693,163. Current estimate is $9.93 billion for the shortened route, $11.3 billion if they are able to get it to Ala Moana, per rail’s 2022 “recovery” plan. Currently there are no plans to go into Waikiki.

For such lengths of urban viaduct, steel is extremely rare. Rate of construction for precast segmental is far higher.

Only problem is Hawaii is LOSING population. So I don’t know where that “growth” will come from.

I wonder where they're losing it to,@@tylerkriesel8590? It certainly looks more built up than it used to be. In any case I should have said a railway station encourages densification, shops, medium-rise apartments around itself, and this is a good thing. I'm no fan of population growth per se.

@@tylerkriesel8590Exactly. Unless much more tourism is successfully promoted and child bearing women are incentivized to have more babies and people live longer and industry encourages more immigration legal or not.

@@davidjackson7281Hawai’i’s population loss is more due to high cost of living forcing existing residents to leave the state so if they don’t stabilize the housing situation first people will keep leaving.

@@K.O.808Perhaps if Hawaii had more industry people could then afford the cost of living in paradise.

Thank god for Brightline and now Brightline West. Some victories. Other city pairs may follow. The 2030s look promising.

I think an old Churchill quote regarding US foreign policy can be applied to our utter lack of competent public transit: "Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted."

@@gosnookylt's too bad England does not have anyone even close to resembling the talent that Churchill had. Perhaps then Britain would be more relevant on the world stage. A 21st century monarchy is a sad and wasteful joke.

@@gosnooky Churchill was just mad the US was not obaying his every whim

It should be 24/7

It currently shuts down at 7 pm because this first section is in the least populated part of the route.

@@hebneh OK, but whoever does live there might still like to be able to get home in the evening.

@@xxwookey They can. The 2, 2L, and Ewa Beach Country Express bus lines.

Also the US and the UK : Build Road on time and on schedule with not complain.

Skytrain Millennium Line in Vancouver might be one, or the Millau Viaduct, and even Heathrow Terminal 5 or Sound Transit University Link. It's possible to do it, you just need to have known conditions, few surprises, and honest bidding. Many megaprojects come in over budget because an honest assessment of the cost would result in them not being built at all.

According to their own environmental impact statement, table 3-12, the rail will decrease traffic by 1.7% after the full route has been in operation for 10 years. However, their daily ridership estimate has dropped from ~118k to ~84k due to the shortened route, so that figure will undoubtedly be less.

Not "funny" at all...the OR&L tracks were all at-grade (on the ground) and did not require any archaeological surveys to be done, since this all happened in the 1880s and 1890s. If any buried human bones were found then, they just got reburied or tossed aside. Since the OR&L did not run in what was then urban Honolulu, there was virtually nothing in the way that had to be demolished or moved, including infrastructure like wiring and underground water and sewage pipes - unlike the complexity currently being coped with on Dillingham Boulevard.

When it is funded with personal money, you get doo doo done. When Gov, u spend $500K and 18months to find out if a snail that lives there is affected.

Maybe a new California law that mandates this? Time to elect a governor who agrees.

@@TheNoerdy😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

a road crossing the pacific?

We need a road from Earth to Mars

Definitely not a train. The Americans wouldn't know what to do with that.

I guess you aren't aware of the "Train to Nowhere they're building in CA. Total boondoggle.

its only good when its built on time and in budget, this is none of those things, it cost 100% more in price and time taken to build it

​​@@TheRealDrJoeythere may or may not be a train to nowhere under construction in CA, but California HSR is not a train to nowhere.

If there's no TOD (old or new), which is often the case, then it's a mistake.

@@illiiilli24601 HSR is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. It is ludicrous.

and oil lobby! basically that bribery is legally allowed, is the real problem. i shouldnt have had to come this far down in the comments to find this.

Ehh that's debatable, look at the highway projects that have been stalled for decades in parts of the South. It's all about priority.

@@Knight_Kin Well, whats for sure is that the oil nad car loby does everything to prvent public transport projects to proceed

Cars is public transportation😉

Experience, Road Construction happens every day, the last large railway constructions are decads ago in the us.

Yep! Vancouver's system, currently at 50 miles of track, cost $8.6 billion USD to build (adjusted for inflation). Another 14 miles of track is currently under construction at a cost of $5.1 billion USD. It's crazy how mismanaged Hawaii's project has been to spend a billion per mile!

You made me look that up and yes, it does look similar! I hope the bugs get ironed out, I'm sure Jakarta could really use it.

I really did not get why Tanggerang opted out of the LRT project.

I rode this skyline in January. It looks almost identical to Vancouver’s skytrain. I’ve read that politicians from Oahu toured Vancouvers system in the planning stages.

@@youtubeguy99 However, SkyTrain is heavy rail cars, like subway cars. Skyline is light rail.

@@MurdogYT haha

Whole thing seems pretty pointless unless it can get kids from the west side all the way to university of Hawaii campus.

From Sweden and I would refuse to live anywhere more than 6 mins from a public transportation system. Is it possible housing will come to the train stations in the US?

Keep up the hopium Hawaii! Nice synopsis though. Better hope they don't shut down your only industry again!

@@JWB671 there is another UH campus at East Kapolei, and one of the new stations is located right beside it. But yeah, it would be nice to have a station serving UH Manoa as well.

@@T_bone in every country, tourists use mass transit like subways and buses, because it's cheaper than having to rent a car all the time, plus they don't get stuck in traffic.

How does this project help the other 49 states? Perhaps Guam and Puerto Rico and Oahu land developers.

​@@davidjackson7281They can at least learn what to do and what NOT to do....

That's what all the conversation from outside the state doesn't get. It's not the graft, the slow progress, the screw-ups. That's to be expected. It's that it doesn't go where it's needed and there's no plan to get it there. The C bus is literally faster than the train. Trains are for where it's super dense, like town, not East Kapolei FFS. "B-but transit-oriented development!" Yeah, let's do a bunch of new greenfield development instead of densifying the massive tracts of single-family homes, that's what's best for the island.

@@benf91 good luck densifying existing single family homes. NIMBYism is insanely bad across the US, especially since it's become front and center of the ideological culture wars.

The mindset was to get people from outside into Honolulu (and onto Waikiki) and off the roadways while doing it. I doubt if folks like you were ever in the equation.

@@WilliamMurphy-uv9pm I definitely understand that. Seeing the traffic backed up on the H1 from the west side all the way into Honolulu, I DEFINITELY get that. The problem is, even when the whole thing is finished, it will only run to a little bit west of Punchbowl. If I work in Waikiki or nearby Waikiki, I still have to take the train all the way to the end of the line...then transfer to a bus. While some people will do that, a lot more won't. I'm all about the train, I love trains. But, if we really want to help get rid of the H1 commute nightmare, the train needs to go further into the heart of Honolulu, possibly even to Kahala. It's not even going to Ala Moana like originally planned. If people can't use the train to at least get close to where they work in Honolulu, they aren't going to use it. It doesn't go far enough into town.

@@WilliamMurphy-uv9pm But that's part of the problem. It doesn't do nearly enough to be effective. Like the OP i've been to Japan and NYC and LOVE trains. It works extremely well- IF there is enough of them with enough stops. But for that to happen you need the population density and Oahu just doesn't have it. We have too much population for the road infrastructure but really not enough to support a large rail project. It was and will most likely be a bad solution unless something else drastically changes.

It’s isolated , freight to get materials to this island is costly ! The environment protection laws I’m sure are causing issues . Once it’s built you have to maintain it ! Will it pay for itself , I bet not ! 😊

Hawaii is also a unique place to build this with its own set of challenges. Even toilet paper costs a lot more there.

Piker! Be a part of the biggest cluster f**k in America's history....the California high speed rail.😂😂😂

@@hotchihuahua1546 State funded infrastructure is never meant to be budget neutral. It's meant as a way for the state to show where your tax dollars are going.

Got let go, did ya?

All intentional to satisfy the construction lobby $$$

The California HSR is an amazing example of letting politics get in the way of actually building effective infrastructure. All the lobbying of smaller towns wanting to have the line run closer to them, shifted the layout to a SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive route, and they focused on building the stupidest part of the line first. It's a classic example of politicians thinking they know better than experts who were SCREAMING it was a bad idea to deviate from the initial plan, and sure as sh!t the costs ballooned into madness. I will still say the Honolulu train is pretty dumb though, as it doesn't even connect major infrastructure like the airport. It's like a half assed slapped together "look we have trains on rails" type thing, but the system is SIGNIFICANTLY underutilized due to bad routing calls.

Both projects are important but also way overdue with huge cost overruns but a 20.2 mi of light metro, with only 10.8 mi in operation with a top speed of 55 mph to a 520 mi of HSR line with a top speed of 220 mph is not comparable,

Love how the way inflated projections were 100k daily riders. Not gonna happen. lt seems the local population is not high enough and there aren't enough tourists to support that gross guesstimate now and in the future.

So far the Skyline is used mainly by students going to and from UH West Oahu and Leeward. Seems great to me in that aspect.

You don’t live there, your opinion means jack.

@@NickThiller Well, I never said my opinion is meant to be meaningful to anyone. But since YOU read it and AND replied, it meant something to you! 😂

Unfortunately it can't take you all over the island. It won't even get you from the airport to anywhere, or to Honolulu, and definitely not to the Windward side of the island.

You can't get a realistic timeline in these large projects. The reason behind isn't ego but unique problems that could only be find out once the actual building occurs like the power line problem. However the biggest issue is usually the legal battles, they are by far the biggest deterence. Every enviromentalist has to prove the worth of their jobs by delaying these projects with bs claims

100% ego and legacy driven.

Not with those politicians.

Everything has to be imported here. Not to mention our government here is awful

I too love grifting the taxpayer.

From Honolulu to Laie, yes

Not gonna happen, friend.

@@hebneh :(

Having rode both systems, the only real difference is SkyTrain is heavy (subway-type) cars. Skyline is light rail. I suspect that once Skyline is running to the Convention Center, there will be a demand to extend it on either end (to Ewa Beach and possibly Kahala Mall or Hawaii Kai on the other end). However, first you need to figure out all the problems, which is what is happening now.

According to rail’s final environmental impact statement, they estimate that car trips will decrease by 1.7% in 2030, AFTER 10 years of full time operation. Yes, the contract with the FTA specified that 20.1 miles of rail and 21 stations would be complete and in full time operation by 1/31/2020 at a total cost of $5.12 billion, with ridership of nearly 120k per day. An “updated” agreement with the FTA specifies 18.9 miles, 19 stations, a total cost of $9.93 billion, ridership of 84k per day, completed in 2031 (at 65% probability). With projected ridership decreasing by 30%, the projected decrease in car trips will undoubtedly be lower as well. “The plan also includes $2.7 billion for mass-transit projects, including $2.5 billion for a fixed-rail system between Kapolei and Manoa.” Star Bulletin 2/19/2006 Going to Manoa made sense because the University of Hawaii at Manoa is the single largest source of traffic on this rock. Unfortunately, about one year later they shortened it to Ala Moana, and any illusion that the rail system was for traffic mitigation disappeared.

First off, the interstate (H1) isn't that narrow for the vast majority of it's length. It's mostly the section that runs through Honolulu it's self as it's older and they made the lanes more narrow so that another lane could be added. None of that section of the H1 is serviced by the rail. As far as the rail being slow, it's alright and I don't think it's slower/faster than most other commuter service trains I've been on (NYC subs, Seattle Orca, SF Bart, All over Japan (obviously commuter, not the shinkansen). As for the condition of the roads, surface streets can be pretty bad especially when you consider the roads don't have to deal with freeze/thaw cycles or having road salt / tire chains / etc issues that many roads up on the mainland US have to deal with. But for the most part it's ok, just go on Google Maps street view and take a look, about the same as many modest sized urban areas.

Finally a good comment. Great idea.

Hawaii use to be inpedent country. Usa invaded it and take it!! Free hawaii NOW!!

if cities didn't rip up their tram tracks in the 50s and 60s in favour of cars and buses then they wouldn't be struggling to get them back today. I'm glad to live in a city where much of the network remained completely intact during the rise of the private automobile

@@TheLostProbeCongested, filthy cities suck.

@@davidjackson7281 yep, that's why we should replace easily overcrowded buses with space-and-energy-efficient trams. doing so will bring cars off the road and subsequently reduce pollution and make the city cleaner and safer for everyone

@@TheLostProbel'm all for (almost) all transit and its many benefits. Replacing busses would be great because busses can really suck. But l find it hard to believe transit is the panacea for solving many of society's problems such as filth and crime.

@@davidjackson7281 I think a good idea would be to have guards on public transport, or at least on trains. if that's not an option then you could put cameras inside each vehicle (this is already done on the more modern Melbourne trams) and train the driver to handle certain scenarios. the driver should also have an easy way to contact the local police so that if there is an unruly passenger, the police can be there within minutes

But, if your hotel is in Waikiki, the Skyline does NOT go there or from there to the airport. Sorry to burst your bubble.

@@WilliamMurphy-uv9pm for a tourist yeah that would suck. But I live on island on the west side so it would work. Especially since I work around the airport.

@@aerojcordero Glad it works for you. Very big price tag for the number of folk actually helped.

@@WilliamMurphy-uv9pm price of paradise I guess

@@aerojcordero Not really. More like too many decades of one party ownership of politics combined with the mistaken idea that if something wasn't invented in Hawaii it won't work there. So ideas that have failed worldwide are tried there only to fail again because locals thought they'd invented the perfect solution without studying it worldwide. Very closed society not taking advantage of ideas proven to work elsewhere. Instead of getting the best ideas from everywhere and implementing them, they choose half-baked ideas foistered upon the Masses by politicians and the many activists who have their ears and wallets. Third- world thinking instead of being the true progressives they claim to be. Sad. How can they improve that? Beats me.