The rail project’s trains are again running after contractor Hitachi Rail Honolulu fixed the problem of doors that were discovered ajar while the automated trains were underway during testing in July.
But another — fixing the ongoing mismatch between too-narrow train wheels on too-wide track switching points — remains elusive, Lori Kahikina, interim CEO and executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, told the HART board Friday.
The good news is that the trains have been running since last weekend after Hitachi Rail figured out how to secure the doors.
“The train left the station, and there was a small gap in the doors, so Hitachi has went ahead and fixed that issue,” Kahikina said. “It was a pin that they needed to secure better, so that has been solved. On the platform gates, there were several instances where the train doors and the platform doors did not perfectly align. … So Hitachi has proposed a software design change to make sure that that does not occur again.”
Kahikina told the board that the state Department of Transportation and HART’s safety committee have approved the fixes. Each of HART’s trains has 24 double sets of doors, and a train is not supposed to be able to run while a door is open.
Addressing the other problem, Hitachi and HART have agreed to replace the trains’ narrower wheels with wider ones because the gap between wheels and track is too wide at crossing junctions called frogs.
Kahikina previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that new wheels would take about a year to manufacture, import and install versus two years to make and install new frogs.
In the meantime, Kahikina told the board Friday that HART continues to search for a qualified welding contractor on the mainland — and Hitachi is conducting a global search — for welders who can retrofit the manganese frogs to narrow the half-inch gap between track and wheels.
She called the idea a “temporary weld fix” until wider wheels can be manufactured, shipped in and installed as replacements for the narrow ones on HART’s initial trains.
Each of 20 trains is expected to consist of four cars, with each running on eight wheels, for a total of 32 wheels per train. Seven trains will roll during initial operations.
Closing the gap at the frogs will allow both wider wheels and narrower ones to navigate through the crossing junctions, Kahikina said. Currently, each train has to slow to 5 mph from 55 mph to get through the frogs.
So far, no welding contractor has bid on the work, and none are qualified locally, she said.
“It’s … local Hawaii licensing that we’re having difficulties with,” Kahikina said. While there are contractors on the mainland qualified to do this type of work, she said, “to bring them here, they can’t just be a subcontractor under a licensed contractor.” Instead, “they need to actually be employees of that licensed contractor, so we’re having a difficult time with that.”
Kahikina noted that the wider wheels would eventually wear down retrofit welds but would still run through the frogs as intended. “HART is confident that there should be no issues, along with TTCI (Transportation Technology Center Inc.), the industry experts,” she said.
Long-term welders would be needed to repair normal track wear and tear throughout the proposed 20.2-mile, 21-station system designed to run from East Kapolei to the interior of Ala Moana Center, the state’s largest transit hub.
“You will have to do spot welding to build it back up, especially at the point of the frogs,” she said.
Asked whether HART or Hitachi Rail will ultimately pay to fix the difference between wheels and track — and the cost to weld the frogs, Kahikina said, “It has not been determined yet. We’re just trying to both work as a team to get the solution and get it done as quickly as possible.”
The project is currently budgeted at $12.499 billion and is not scheduled for completion until March 2031. The budget faces a current shortfall of about $3.5 billion, with no simple plan to plug the deficit. However, a consultant is taking a hard look at HART’s costs and revenue picture, and a draft report was expected Friday that could include the possibility of changing the forecast.
Reiterating her previous assessment of the estimated shortfall, Kahikina told the board that because previous HART administrations were “too aggressive” in their cost projections, the price tag for the project has escalated. By comparison, when Kahikina assumed leadership over this year, she said HART made “conservative” estimates in an effort to present a more realistic picture.
The volunteer HART board Friday also selected a ninth voting member: Mark Howland, the city’s former permit coordinator for the rail project. Howland has a background in land management, project management and environmental and planning services, and had a role in the rail’s Phase I West Oahu Stations Group design as the environmental program manager, according to a statement issued by HART.
Also, according to his application submitted to the HART board, Howland has served as a consultant with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority “for erosion control, wetland delineation and permitting, and stormwater mitigation.”
