Eating crow is never fun — and I have a plateful to munch through.

Many predicted the HART rail project would go wildly over-budget. I didn’t believe them. They were right. I was wrong and I’m sorry for doubting them.

As one of the leaders of the Sierra Club, I helped craft the decision to support the project. In doing so the club parted company with many allies. It was painful. We knew we would lose friends and supporters … and we did. So I’m angry. Like most taxpayers on Oahu — perhaps more so than most — I believe I’m owed an apology for the way the project has been so badly managed, for the fudged numbers and misleading information.

But here’s the thing: The environmental rationale for the rail system is as strong now as it ever was. So, too, are the social and economic benefits for the working poor along the leeward coast — benefits that will far outweigh the costs to those families to complete and operate the system.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of Oahu is being decided right now. The rail project will help determine what the island will look like 50 years from now: Do we house the 200,000 new residents anticipated over that time in yet more sprawling suburbs that will destroy yet more of the countryside, or do we house them in urban neighborhoods near the train stations?

That’s why our elected officials have a duty to look beyond their righteous anger and ensure that the project has the funding to do its job.

Stopping at Middle Street or turning into a traffic-clogging street trolley won’t allow it to do its job. In fact, to really do its job, the train has to go to the University of Hawaii-Manoa, Waikiki and Kapolei.

The current debate in the Legislature provides our elected officials with a unique opportunity to ensure that it does exactly that — and provide some other major improvements besides.

With a permanent extension of the general excise tax (GET), here’s what could be done:

>> Permanently reimburse the island’s poorest 100,000 families the $218 that the average family of five spends on the GET surcharge every year, as calculated by Tom Yamachika of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii. In fact that could be done with the “skim” the state currently takes and still have enough left over to give the state Department of Taxation $5 million a year to administer the surcharge.

>> Convert the rail into an underground subway system from Middle Street to UH-Manoa. Because this would avoid expensive utility relocation expenses along Dillingham Avenue and shorten the route, several experts calculate that the price would be almost the same as building an elevated system to UH via Ala Moana. Imagine how much disruption of traffic and business could be avoided and above all, consider how significant the avoided visual blight of an elevated system in town.

>> Require the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) to build its own micro grid. Since it will go out of business as soon as the system is built, HART has no incentive to spend funds on components that will save operating expenses once the train goes into service. Its only goal is to get the system finished as fast and as cheaply as possible. But if HART supplied its own power it could save as much as $25 million every year on electricity costs.

>> Immediately introduce an electric circulator bus system to serve Kakaako that would instantly demonstrate the promise of “live, work, play” urban neighborhoods and eventually connect to the train stations.

If members of the Legislature want to punish city officials for getting us into the current mess, what better way than to take control and take the credit for giving the people of Oahu a system that truly fulfills its promise?

Anthony Aalto is a filmmaker; the views expressed here are his own.