READERS REACT TO COUNCIL VOTE ON INITIAL RAIL ROUTE

EXCLUDING UH, AIRPORT FROM ROUTE IS LUDICROUS

Everyone who drives on the H-1 Freeway knows quite well that when the University of Hawai'i is in session, traffic increases, and when it is not in session, it decreases.

We also know that the airport affects traffic in major ways. So, the City Council's decision to exclude those two places from the rail transit route is ludicrous.

It's too bad that all these years of talk about this project have apparently not produced any solid statistical data to reveal where the real traffic jams arise.

Let's remember this vote when the next election comes around.

WE MUST HAVE GOTTEN LOST IN A REALITY SHOW

Let's see — a train that does not serve the largest university (University of Hawai'i-Manoa), the most densely populated center (Waikiki) and the airport.

Are we competing in a reality show for the most shortsighted, corrupt, mismanaged and just plain stupid transit program ever? Hands down, we win.

It is scary to think of what else is next. Shame on you, City Council! Scrap the whole thing and use $1 billion to build subsidized housing and save us $3 billion of the $4 billion you've allocated.

And save some of the cash for a recall election. Maybe then we can start again.

O'AHU RESIDENTS MERIT BETTER FROM COUNCIL

The actions of our City Council are disillusioning.

It was clear after the previous vote that public sentiment favored the airport route. Councilmembers Ann Kobayashi and Gary Okino are on record as believing the airport to be the better route. But apparently they don't vote according to what is best for the island.

Kobayashi didn't think it would be fair to Salt Lake residents to change the previous vote's outcome, and Okino didn't want to make Romy Cachola mad at him.

O'ahu residents deserve better treatment than this.

COUNCIL DID JOB WELL IN PICKING SALT LAKE ROUTE

The Honolulu City Council has been criticized for opting to route a fixed guideway transit system through Salt Lake instead of serving the airport.

The cost efficiency ratings for the two routes, based on expense and ridership projections, differ by a minuscule 1.7 percent. Given that the margin of error on transit ridership projections can be as high as 50 percent, that's basically no difference at all.

The council also had little basis to favor the airport route after reviewing the experience of Mainland cities. As the council heard in public testimony, most transit systems built in the U.S. in the past 35 years don't connect to the local airport, because residential commuters have been given priority over travelers.

With respect to cost, the council had to consider that the Salt Lake route is $110 million cheaper than the airport route. Those are funds that can be used later to help finance an extension to UH-Manoa, which all of the Council members appear to view as a critical priority, but unfortunately is not affordable in the first phase.

Finally, the council was left to consider community views. The Salt Lake community campaigned persistently for transit service.

So with all else being roughly equal, the council made a decision that gave weight to the views of the Salt Lake community. If that's wrong, then isn't it equally wrong that the council gave weight to the views of the Waikiki community by declining to route the initial transit line into Waikiki?

OMISSION OF AIRPORT ON RAIL ROUTE A HUGE ERROR

Hawai'i's mass-transportation planners have made a huge error in the planning of the rail project on O'ahu.

They have let politics and personal neighborhood agendas dictate the route.

I am an airline pilot, and perhaps a bit biased on the subject of transportation to and from airports. But as someone who has been traveling internationally for a living for almost 20 years, and in the transportation and tourist business for almost 28 years, I do have some experience.

Hawai'i makes most of its GDP revenue from tourism. By not running the train system to the airport, they are making it hard and inconvenient for people to have cheap and easy access to the airport.

Most major airports have easy and convenient rail systems. The new airports in Japan, Germany and Australia have train stations in them.

Why would you set up a system (such as that in Oakland and Los Angeles) where you have to get off the train with bags to transfer to a bus to get to the airport? This is just one of the latest blunders in mismanaging the planning of the future of Hawai'i.

ONCE AGAIN, COUNCIL FLUBBED VOTE ON RAIL

For Councilman Romy Cachola and kids who want to "hang out" at Ala Moana Shopping Center, it was a great day.

For those who value our place as a world-class travel destination, or who may be trying to get an education at the University of Hawai'i, it was a disaster.

Shame on Cachola and those who went along with him. They flubbed it 10 years ago, and now again. Too bad this is not an election year.

ALOHA STADIUM SHOULD BE MAJOR HUB FOR RAIL

Rail and the future of Aloha Stadium generate much discussion. The stadium should serve as a major hub with rail following both the H-1 corridor and Salt Lake Boulevard. This would allow the stadium to be used as a park-and-ride and bus-transfer point for those who are coming from various areas of the island.

To not take rail by the airport makes no sense. Residents, not only tourists, would use the system to get to and from the airport.

Renovate Aloha Stadium, and use the money allocated for a new stadium project to go toward two lines emanating from the stadium.

Aloha Stadium is prime real estate and needs to be revitalized. Keep this land for all the public to enjoy; let it serve as a major hub for rail in O'ahu.

FREE RAIL SYSTEM WOULD MAXIMIZE RIDERSHIP

When we build the train system, why don't we just make riding it free?

Fares pay very little of the operational costs anyway; San Francisco's Muni collects only about 20 percent of its operating costs from fare-box revenues.

Free transit would also save us the cost of collecting fares and would maximize the number of people riding it. The latter would do a great deal to reduce traffic on certain roadways.

So why not make it free?

RAIL SYSTEM WILL JUST BE FINANCIAL BLACK HOLE

So why mass transit?

Even its supporters acknowledge it will not alleviate traffic in the H-1 corridor. The City Council's 5-4 vote to route via Salt Lake instead of the airport should remind taxpayers that the entire enterprise is a craven political and financial black hole into which Honolulu taxpayers will forever dump tax revenues.

Just wait and see just how lousy city services and maintenance get once taxpayers balk at paying the huge tax increases that will be needed to build and operate this system! Our roads will then be gravel.