Oh, that's right he did and our stupid fuckin governor said "no".

as usual it is a corporate screw people out of all the $$ possible, regardless of the merits of rail in Honolulu. Companies should be forced to bid the job and if they underbid, lose money, not get endless "cost overruns" which were deliberate in the beginning.

I visited one Hawaiian island, and based on that, I suspect that rail would be a good answer for that state. Rail is cleaner than automobiles and perfect for traveling the relatively short distances and routes that get you where you want to go in the islands. Hawaii has to bring in all the cars it has. That must cost a lot of money.

Tourism is a big part of the Hawaiian economy, and rail is the perfect transportation for tourists.

This is a great idea.

I should add that I used to travel by train with two small children in Europe. It's great to travel in trains with kids. Hands free. Attention free. The kids can move around a bit. Children love trains. They like being around the other passengers. Somehow my children were even quieter on trains than in airplanes (and they were not noisy like some children on planes). It may be because their ears didn't hurt when the air pressure changed, but also because they could see what was in front and in back of them without being strapped into a seat. Trains are a wonderful way to travel with small children.

...and the likelihood that it won't actually reduce gridlock. It's been a hard-fought project and many are quite dismayed at the potential of spending billions that could be better allocated.

I like trains too.

the extreme amount of air traffic overhead all the time. A lot of it is police helicopter activity. But combined with the freeway noise and all the other noisy, it is quite unhealthy.

Trains could reduce some of the local traffic. I ride the train to get to San Diego. Fast rail trains would get older drivers and students who commute off the streets and commuter planes out of the sky.

The cost is troubling. I wonder how much of it is due to corruption?

L.A. is very spread out, Honolulu is not. You could fit the entire island of Oahu in the L.A. basin. Rail makes sense for L.A. and I do use it sometimes to get across the L.A. basin, but it's real value is in its interconnection with other forms of transportation including private automobiles.

Honolulu needs to take steps to fundamentally shift its traffic patterns, but it is certainly debatable if things like dedicated bus lanes wouldn't solve the problem at a much lower cost than heavy rail. Doing anything in Honolulu is expensive as it is on an island in the middle of the Pacific and everything must be shipped in and the cost of labor is high. Some construction companies have actually been bringing in non-unionized workers to reduce their labor cost

We have an aging population in LA and need to improve our transportation.

I have lots of friends in their 60s-80s who really can't drive like they used to. They are trying public transportation, but it is difficult. You can't easily get to Santa Monica from anywhere, especially not the east side, say Lincoln or Boyle Heights or the area around Cal State LA unless you take the Santa Monica buses. And that is a huge hassle.

Rail makes it possible for all to travel, rail makes it convenient to travel (no TSA, yet), rail saves fuel and dollars.

Give me high speed rail from New York to Chicago, Chicago to LA and I will leave my car behind going to those destinations.