Cost, ridership of 4-car trains remain in dispute

Oahu transit officials on Thursday touted their plan to debut the island’s elevated rail system with four-car trains instead of two-car models, telling the board overseeing the project that the change would save millions of dollars and provide better customer service.

Their presentation, however, did not mention that the firm contracted to build those trains, Ansaldo Honolulu JV, has estimated the switch to four-car trains would actually cost the city about $4 million. It wasn’t until after the presentation, when Ho­nolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board member Mike Formby brought up the matter, that HART officials acknowledged the disparity between Ansaldo’s estimated costs and their estimated savings of some $20 million.

HART rejects Ansaldo’s estimate, and the semiautonomous government agency’s executive director, Dan Grabauskas, has previously said the city won’t pay that cost. The dispute stems from a larger disagreement over the work Ansaldo is obligated to do under its $1.4 billion contract to design, build, operate and maintain Oahu’s 20-mile, 21-station driverless train system.

"The starting position of the vendor is that there is a starting cost," Grabauskas told Formby and the other board members. "Our analysis strongly indicates a significant saving."

The move to four-car trains would have passengers wait nearly three minutes longer in between trains than they would for the two-car models, but it also would make it easier for those riders to board and exit a train, Deputy Director for Systems Rainer Hombach told the HART board Thursday. They would have more space and have more seats available, he added.

The move to four-car trains also recently received approval from federal transit officials.

Neither Hombach nor Grabauskas addressed on Thursday recently leaked ridership models from HART consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff that showed the four-car trains would net 11 percent fewer new riders than the two-car trains. Those figures also weren’t included in HART reports on the proposal submitted to federal officials.

The frequency of the trains is a factor in the ridership analysis.

However, Grabauskas has previously said the overall benefits of opting for four-car trains still make it the better decision — and that a comparison in ridership gains between the two-car and four-car trains wasn’t necessary.

On Thursday, he said the move would allow the city to avoid having to buy systems for two- and three-car trains that would be obsolete seven years after the rail debuts. That’s when HART expects the system to be running four-car trains entirely.

It makes more sense to run four-car trains at different frequencies, based on demand, than it does to couple the cars in different combinations of two, three or four, he said.

"I don’t want to put people in the rail yard making deuces one day and triples the next," Grabauskas told the board, referring to the number of train cars. "Just line up a bunch of fours and run them more quickly."

The board appeared receptive to the proposed change. Formby, the city’s director of transportation services, said his department would have to ensure that rail’s connections to TheBus and HandiVan services still worked smoothly with the four-car train system.