Introducing the US's latest, greatest, delayed, and cost-overrun rapid transit project: Honolulu Area Rapid Transit. Oahu has been attempting to build a metro for many decades (since the Great Society programs of the 1960s), but the island was not able to assemble, fund, and break ground on a project until 2011. We introduce the history and geography of Oahu, talk about the success of Mayor Fasi's bus system, and tour the past, present, and future of the HART project. The first phase of Honolulu's much-needed metro system is right around the corner!
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Timestamps
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:24 Theme song (no news today)
- 00:56 A big project for Honolulu's size
- 02:41 Oahu's geography [7]
- 04:21 History of public transit in Honolulu
[5]
- 07:40 Mayor Fasi
- 09:54 TheBus
- 10:37 Success & ridership
- 12:11 No space to expand H1
- 12:29 How HART got its start
- 12:55 High-capacity transit attempted since early on
- 13:45 Reagan
- 14:48 Cheese
- 15:57 Light rail not suited
- 16:33 Fasi returns
- 17:44 The HART project of today
- 18:29 EIS purgatory
- 20:24 2008 recession
- 21:49 The project finally starts
- 23:18 Fully elevated
- 24:40 Tourism & surfboard racks
- 25:31 Light metro features
- 27:10 Ridership
- 28:14 Cost overruns, delays, et cetera
- 28:33 Cost overruns
- 28:46 Huge delays
- 29:45 The American cost snake
- 31:48 Initial cost estimate
- 33:01 Protected wilderness
- 33:43 Human remains
- 39:12 Usual NIMBY nonsense
- 39:45 Cost of total elevation
- 41:59 Moral of the story
- 43:00 Outro
References & notes
- [1] Wikipedia: Honolulu Rail Transit ยง Previous projects
- [2] Hawai'i Real Estate and Living: Honolulu Rail Transit Status
- [3] Wikipedia: Honolulu
- [4] Hawaii Business Magazine: How Rail Got to $12.45 Billion and 11 Years Late
- [5] Wikipedia: TheBus (Honolulu)
- [6] Honolulu Rail Transit: International lessons from Barcelona in linking urban form, design, and transportation
- [7] There are other freeways on Oahu, but H1 is the principal freeway, covering the main urbanized area. H2 and H3 connect through the mountains to outlying suburbs.