There has been a permanent change in people’s work and commuting habits “since it was discovered in the pandemic that workers and businesses could profit from having people work from home,” he said. FTA data shows ridership in Honolulu was down 40% in March from March 2019, and “this shortfall needs to be addressed, not ignored,” Slater said. That decline in ridership means rail will have less of an impact on urban traffic than had been originally planned, and longtime rail critic Cliff Slater told the HART board Friday the plan is “deeply flawed.”Įven the reduced ridership estimates still don’t take into account the recent changes in transit ridership, which was dropping even before the pandemic, he said. The HART board was told Friday the city is planning two major bus lines to serve the proposed new end point at Civic Center Station so riders can quickly transfer from rail to buses to continue to the University of Hawaii Manoa, and into Waikiki.
#HONOLULU RAIL ROUTE MAP FULL#
The original projected ridership for the full 20-mile line from East Kapolei to Ala Moana was 119,600 boardings per day, but HART now estimates that ridership would drop to about 84,000 per day if the line is shortened and construction on two rail stations including Ala Moana is deferred. The shortened line envisioned in the new recovery plan would reduce the number of people who will use rail each weekday by nearly 30% from the ridership projections that were developed more than a decade ago, before construction of the project began.
The parking garage would cost $330 million - which is far more than comparable structures - because the city plan was to build it in a floodplain that would require foundations that span aerially over a stream, according to the recovery plan. The recovery plan would also defer construction of a planned 1,600-stall Pearl Highlands parking garage, which was supposed to offer a convenient place for rail riders from Central Oahu to park their cars before boarding the rail line to head into town.
The city is determined to continue the line to Ala Moana when more money becomes available. The new recovery plan would allow the city to complete the rail line to South Street, but the trade off would be less robust ridership. A station known as the Civic Center Station is planned for that site. The new recovery plan made public by HART last week would shorten the rail line by 1.25 miles to pause construction at the corner of Halekauwila Street and South Street, which is about a block from Waterfront Plaza and the Honolulu Circuit Court building. The plan will now be submitted to the Honolulu City Council, and Kahikina said she is hoping the council’s Transportation, Sustainability and Health Committee will take it up on May 24.
The Federal Transit Administration, which pledged $1.55 billion to help finance the rail project, set a deadline of June 30 for the city to produce an acceptable recovery plan. HART Executive Director Lori Kahikina emphasized the city is still committed to extending the rail line to Ala Moana Center as the city has planned and promised for the past decade, but after years of cost overruns HART does not have the money at the moment to reach that goal. The board of directors for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation approved a proposed new recovery plan for the troubled city rail project on Friday that envisions a shorter rail line that ends on South Street, and would cost nearly $10 billion.
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