A long-awaited report on possible next steps for the $10 billion Honolulu rail line outlines a bundle of options that are already drawing fire, including subways and streetcars in the urban core as potential extensions of the elevated Skyline system.
The “Minority Report of the ‘Ala Moana and Beyond’ Interaction Group,” also includes cost estimates totaling billions of dollars for various alternatives for extending the reach of the rail line to destinations including Waikīkī, the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, Ko ‘Olina, and even Central Oʻahu.
Rail critics who reviewed the report were quick to dismiss the concepts it raises as wildly cost prohibitive and unnecessary. One called it “a transit planner’s hallucination,” another said it was “a fever dream” that would cost “insane amounts.”…