On Politics: Talking about a terminus: Mayor Rick Blangiardi seeks to stop rail at Kakaako, at least for now

We go to the Oxford English Dictionary for all the answers. Asked to define “terminus,” the dictionary says, “a final point in space or time; an end or extremity.” The British point to “terminus” as “the end of a railroad or other transportation route.”

Local officials last week described the latest location for the landing spot for Honolulu’s rail project, or “terminus,” as the Civic Center, which rail officials put at the intersection of Halekauwila and South streets in Kakaako.

This, however, is not a terminal terminus, because last week when Mayor Rick Blan­giardi used his second “State of the City” address to announce his desire to stop the rail line downtown instead of at Ala Moana Center, others saw it as just a momentary pause.

Lori Kahikina, CEO and executive director for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that officials will have to find new sources of revenue to finish the 1.25-mile stretch to Ala Moana.

Blangiardi is the second Honolulu mayor to waver. Back in 2016, then-Mayor Kirk Caldwell told HART: ”I wish we could go all the way to Ala Moana now, and I really wish we could go up to UH-Manoa; that is for another day, in my mind.”

Caldwell added that while he wanted to go further, “Let’s focus on what we can do with the money we have.”

Later he repeated that worry, telling Star-Advertiser editors in a meeting: “With the money we’ve got, we can only get to Middle Street. It doesn’t mean we are stopping.”

When Caldwell was raising the point that there was not enough money to go to Ala Moana, rail supporters were filling the “Letters to the Editor” newspaper columns with howls of protest, saying the train must end at Ala Moana.

If not stopping the rail line short of where HART promised federal officials it would end, the line is still much troubled. The budget is about $1.3 billion short of what’s needed to finish the project.

Yes, this opens up many new questions. HART promised the feds it would construct a transit line that went to Ala Moana, not the improbably named “Civic Center” that no one has ever heard of.

The deal with the Federal Transit Administration was for 20 miles of rail, 21 stations, and 20 four-car trains traveling from East Kapolei through downtown Honolulu to Ala Moana Center. If the plan now is for 18.75 miles and perhaps 19 stations, there may be a few federal questions about the competence or truthfulness of the folks running things in Honolulu.

Those questions are not accompanied with millions of federal dollars. They come with federal investigations.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.