Legislator to seek face time with FTA

As city and rail leaders prepare to ask state lawmakers for another rail tax extension, one key legislator wants to bring the project’s federal partners to Hawaii to clarify their position on the financially troubled transit project.

State House Majority Leader Scott Saiki (D, Downtown-Kakaako-McCully) says he’ll ask the Federal Transit Administration to brief members of the Legislature on the agency’s rail position sometime after the Nov. 8 general election.

“I don’t think anyone should be afraid of that happening,” Saiki said Monday. “The more information that is presented to the public is positive, from my perspective.”

Saiki said that he doesn’t think any state legislators have been briefed by the FTA since that agency’s acting administrator, Carolyn Flowers, met with local leaders, including Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, City Council Chairman Ernie Martin and former rail board Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa, in August.

The project faces a nearly $2 billion budget gap, according to the latest official estimates. The city has a $1.55 billion funding deal with the FTA. Since emerging from those Aug. 29-30 meetings in San Francisco, city and rail leaders have been united in their call to find a way to build the full transit project to Ala Moana Center.

What hasn’t been clear, however, is what — if any — changes rail’s federal partners would accept to rein in project costs.

“The FTA will not accept (stopping at) Middle Street and they will accept Ala Moana. Those are the two knowns,” Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Acting Executive Director Mike Formby said in a recent text message. “Any other option is a Plan B option and there is no guarantee it will be accepted unless and until it goes through an analysis which includes a planning study.”

In June HART briefly weighed six alternatives, including stopping at Middle Street, switching to a street-level system past Middle Street, building the elevated line as far as funding allows and even switching the route from Dillingham Boulevard to Nimitz Highway.

Local officials continue to study potential cost-cutting alternatives in case they can’t secure the money they need to build the full rail line, according to HART’s Sept. 30 “Interim Plan.”

The FTA has not issued follow-up correspondence to the city or HART regarding the group’s August meeting, agency officials say. At the time, it issued a statement to media outlets that it would “continue to work with city and county officials to determine a successful path forward.”

The public has had to rely on the local leaders who were at the meeting in San Francisco to provide any other details on FTA expectations.

“We do not expect the FTA to be receptive to a plan that ends the rail line anywhere other than downtown as it could render it inoperable,” Martin said in an Aug. 26 letter to Gov. David Ige.

“The FTA’s position is firm. Build the rail line downtown or forfeit the $1.55 billion,” City Councilman and Transportation Committee Chairman Joey Manahan added in a statement after the San Francisco meetings.

“I have no idea, other than what third parties have reported,” Saiki said Monday.

Meanwhile, FTA continues to consider the city’s request to extend its rail recovery plan deadline from Dec. 31 to mid-2017.