Comments on: Still in Planning, Ambitious Honolulu Rail Transit Project May be in Financial Trouble

By: Cameron Slick

Cameron Slick — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:14:59 +0000

Jon, in regards to funding, HSR and New Starts will never get anywhere significant if the feds don’t contribute 80-90%, just like the Interstate Highway & Defense Act. Yonah has a great article on this site about a consistent way of funding projects through ridership that is very reasonable, especially for large projects like the Honolulu line.

By: simple

simple — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:18:59 +0000

anonymous, where can i find an operational example of a PRT that has been built for “a few tens of millions a mile” and that carries anywhere close to 6,000 pphpd? if there isn’t an operational example (preferably several), the PRT website is selling a story not a proven product. also, the honolulu train should be capable of 10-20K pphpd — even if doesn’t reach that in the early years, presumably this is a 50-100 year investment they’re making and it’s prudent to desing to accommodate growth without having to convert to an entirely different kind of infrastructure.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:44:19 +0000

How about a PRT? A few tens of millions a mile instead of $265 million/mile, throughput capacity is similar (going by the 6,000 pphpd figure on their website), and depending on the design chosen it could also have a higher average speed.

By: Froggie

Froggie — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:51:33 +0000

Unless Oberstar and the rest of Congress can find (and more importantly agree) on a new source for major transportation funding (and given the huge deficit, the regular treasury/general fund is not an answer), increasing the Federal share for this project is not a reasonable solution either.

By: jon

jon — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:28:59 +0000

this sounds a little like the seattle monorail project. the tax money coming in is down, throwing off the numbers and then the media turns on the project.