San Juan's Tren Urbano

Could our rail be as big a disaster as San Juan’s Tren Urbano?

We have seen the new report showing that Puerto Rico’s Tren Urbano rail line was a complete disaster. But the contractors made millions of dollars in cool, sweet profits. Cost escalated to 74 percent greater than the Full Funding Grant Agreement projection, ridership was over estimated by four times the actual ridership. Sounds familiar? He He He.

 

"When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". Buzz off. What
good is a damn cake you can't eat? What should I eat, someone else's cake instead?"

Worse than this was that San Juan’s total bus and rail transit ridership resulted in 30 percent fewer riders than what they had before they built rail. Bettah ride car. You can see the proof, now in Honolulu. The "cattle cars" ain't fo me, mo bettah ride car.

 

 

The "Shortie Bus," excellent for small areas, and has done a great job for a long time.

Now obsolete as every day transportation for a city the size of Honolulu.

In the new report you can find all the sources of information easily and why such a disaster is likely to happen with Honolulu rail. But in Honolulu there are "billions and billions of dollars" in pure unadulterated profits. Easy Money for many on the Mainland too, those tied in with Inouye. It's the dough, Moe!

Articulated Bus, (one tandem) but on Oahu they were too successful, people were

actually getting off their cars and riding the more comfortable buses.

 

Naturally the rail people objected. Carlisle was ordered to cut the bus schedules down and turned them into "cattle cars" with the resulting punishment to the users of public transportation. Packed solid and sometimes, "Take the next bus." Auwe. Every user of Public Transportation is firmly convinced we need more buses not a rail. The proof has been in the pudding.

 

You can get a bi-articulated (two tandems) bus for about 900 thousand dollars in the US. From Europe, perhaps closer to 800 thousand. From China, about 600 thousand. In the US. a shortie bus cost more than a half million. Every user in Honolulu, now is certain, rail not needed. Buses yes, desperately.

The Bi-Articulated Bus (two tandems) would be perfect for just 40% of the entire

fleet very carefully placed at one twentieth the cost of rail. The Rail would be

superfluous and the entire island would benefit. But the Big Big Bucks would

not be there and it's the money, Sonny.

Bus rapid transit originated in South America, and is spreading throughout the world. Much less expensive than rail and easier to install. Much more efficient than rail. The maintenance crews in every city are already in place. And in Honolulu we already have one of the best bus maintenance crews in the Pacific.

At the moment, the most advance BRT systems in the world can be found in places like Curitiba, Brazil and Bogota, Colombia. You will never see a rail system in South America. Bus fabricators are building bigger and better buildings and will export to the US. Maybe to the neighbor islands now that they know about the Rail Disaster on Oahu.

Pub's Side Note: "In Hawaii, dance blogs are enabling hundreds of dancers to express their opinions with reduced political risk simply because of the sheer number of like-minded opinions online. Facing these independent voices, the old clique machine starts to crumble."