Honolulu Rail

Another thing that we really liked about Europe and are missing in the US is rail transportation.  It is nice to be able to travel across the country and read a book, take a nap, or get up and walk around at the same time without having to worry about driving.  In fact, this is what allowed us to live for over a year without owning a car.  Also, in general rail is much, much more fuel efficient than driving personal cars (especially when it is one person per hummer on a crowded highway).  When my grandmother was a girl she used railroads to travel, but they have almost completely disappeared now in the US.  We use words like train station so infrequently in American English that these became some of the first words we adopted and used regularly in Germany.  We would say Bahnhof (train station) and Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in the middle of an English sentence.  As fuel becomes more expensive it seems inevitable that we will have to return to--at least some--rail travel.

There is a plan to put in the beginning of a public transportation rail line from Kapolei to Honolulu here in Oahu.  Here is a link to the project's website. 

Rail has been the hot topic on the radio every since arriving in Hawai'i.  Eventually, some day, it would be wonderful to have a rail system around the island, and it would be nice to use to commute to work, and probably save us a lot of money, instead of driving our van back and forth every day.  However, almost everything I have heard on the radio has been largely negative about the rail project.  In 2008 53% of the island voted in favor of rail (link) but, every since I arrived, people have been trying to get decisions changed and preparations stopped to prevent the rail system.  Now ground has been broken and work has started constructing the line, but the fight goes on and more than one of the people running in the next elections has made stopping rail a major part of their platforms.  Sure, there are things I would change about the rail line, like stops near our house and my job so that we can use it, but a new rail system has to start somewhere.  And, it would be great if it was half the price with no cost overruns, but public transportation is something useful that the government can provide with tax money.  What alternative is there?  This would also give an alternative to people that do not have cars.  Even if the rail doesn't come near our houses we can potentially use buses to connect to it.  Finally, the rail system would benefit all of us whether we used it or not, because of lower traffic congestion and less pollution. 

We were able to sign a house-to-house petition in support of the rail project.  Here are some example links of the discussion in the news: (one) (two) (three) (four)