Posted on 02/13/2013 6:04:40 PM PST by Olog-hai
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. …
An additional $4 million has been obligated from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the “stimulus”), 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. …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
This is why roads are falling apart.
Hey, keeping the fact that the dork has no real HI birth certificate costs.
And you and I get to pay....for their railroad.
That money could be better spent investing in Google’s automated automobile system. That way they could have hundreds of thousands of stops and no track at all. PLUS, a really big benefit, the blind could travel on the system without the use of special trip hazard rubber mats.
This is why roads are falling apart.
Mahalo!
How about tunnels that connect island to island?
Reminds me of the monorail episode of The Simpsons.
Wanna chance hitting a magma reservoir . . . ?
Jason Lewis’ law is “Spending begets Spending”.
If the Federal Government spends $billion for a Hooterville Trolly for Minneapolis how can you not build one in Oahu.
everyone had enough...well i have...time to act!!!!!!!!!!
Better yet, a bridge to the mainland.
Wow a new money laundering scheme.
Lots of bullsqueeze about traffic, but the effect for most commuters will be nothing. A total waste of money.
WHERE on a 30 mile wide island couldn’t you get to by walking?
How many bridges to nowhere does this add up to.
I’m not surprised at this. I arrived at Hickam AFB in March 1969. The construction of H1 was in progress. A mainland construction company, Kaiser, I think, had been awarded the contract for construction for about 20 miles of H1 from west of Barbers Point NAS to near Pearl City and had completed it on time. The local union goons (the ILWU controlled the islands) didn’t like that and prevailed on the Johnson administration to break up construction into about 1 mile chunks. H1 still had not been completed when I left the islands in late 1972, and the cost was astronomical.
sounds crazy
If the area has a population density comparable to Chicago or Toronto it would make sense, but somehow I don’t think that’s the case. If it were a full-on subway the cost would be reasonable but for light rail it’s ridiculous.
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