City's rush to build railunrealistic, unnecessary

By David Shapiro

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 28, 2012

~~<p>City transit officials make it sound like natural inflationary forces are the reason rail costs would go up by $10 million a month if they wait for approval of $1.55 billion in federal funds before starting heavy construction of the $5.27 billion Oahu commuter train.</p>
<p>Actually, it's the result of their unrealistic and politically driven timetable that ignored the advice of the Federal Transit Administration and set an earlier construction start than federal reviewers thought possible.</p>
~~

City transit officials make it sound like natural inflationary forces are the reason rail costs would go up by $10 million a month if they wait for approval of $1.55 billion in federal funds before starting heavy construction of the $5.27 billion Oahu commuter train.

Actually, it's the result of their unrealistic and politically driven timetable that ignored the advice of the Federal Transit Administration and set an earlier construction start than federal reviewers thought possible. Login for more...