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Administration Will Spend $1.8 Billion to Build 20-Mile Railroad on 30-Mile-Wide Island (Oahu)
Cybercast News Service ^ | February 13, 2013 | Patrick Burke

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: hawaii; hawaiilrt; lightfail; lrtboondoggle; oahu; overpriced
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This has to be the most outrageous cost for light rail since the one across the river from New York (in Jersey City, over $100 million per mile)—the Oahu system will be a colossal $255 million per mile. (That is $155 million per mile more than the largest estimate for California HSR, for the record.)
1 posted on 02/13/2013 6:04:45 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

This is why roads are falling apart.


2 posted on 02/13/2013 6:08:28 PM PST by DManA
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To: Olog-hai

Hey, keeping the fact that the dork has no real HI birth certificate costs.

And you and I get to pay....for their railroad.


3 posted on 02/13/2013 6:09:06 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Olog-hai

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.


4 posted on 02/13/2013 6:09:13 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Olog-hai

This is why roads are falling apart.


5 posted on 02/13/2013 6:09:19 PM PST by DManA
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To: Olog-hai

Mahalo!


6 posted on 02/13/2013 6:09:39 PM PST by andyk (I have sworn...eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.)
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To: Olog-hai

How about tunnels that connect island to island?


7 posted on 02/13/2013 6:10:02 PM PST by killermosquito (Buffalo, Detroit (and eventually France) is what you get when liberalism runs its course.)
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To: Olog-hai

Reminds me of the monorail episode of The Simpsons.


8 posted on 02/13/2013 6:11:37 PM PST by mnehring
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To: killermosquito

Wanna chance hitting a magma reservoir . . . ?


9 posted on 02/13/2013 6:12:12 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

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.


10 posted on 02/13/2013 6:12:24 PM PST by DManA
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To: DManA

everyone had enough...well i have...time to act!!!!!!!!!!


11 posted on 02/13/2013 6:12:48 PM PST by ldish (Give me Freedom and Liberty or let's kick some a**!)
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To: killermosquito

Better yet, a bridge to the mainland.


12 posted on 02/13/2013 6:12:54 PM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: Olog-hai

Wow a new money laundering scheme.


13 posted on 02/13/2013 6:13:56 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: Olog-hai
Article did not bother to mention the majority of Oahu residents are against the rail. Particularly since only a very small part of the island could possibly benefit, but everyone gets raped for the costs.

Lots of bullsqueeze about traffic, but the effect for most commuters will be nothing. A total waste of money.

14 posted on 02/13/2013 6:14:38 PM PST by doorgunner69
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To: Olog-hai

WHERE on a 30 mile wide island couldn’t you get to by walking?


15 posted on 02/13/2013 6:14:38 PM PST by bigheadfred
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To: Olog-hai

How many bridges to nowhere does this add up to.


16 posted on 02/13/2013 6:16:02 PM PST by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: Olog-hai

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.


17 posted on 02/13/2013 6:18:43 PM PST by RightWingConspirator (Obamanation--the most corrupt regime since Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe)
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To: Olog-hai

sounds crazy


18 posted on 02/13/2013 6:20:19 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: Olog-hai

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.


19 posted on 02/13/2013 6:21:12 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
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To: Olog-hai
Guess the yahoos responsibile for this haven’t noticed we are broke. Horribily irresponsible.
20 posted on 02/13/2013 6:22:24 PM PST by benasawin
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