08-29-2007, 02:32 PM
Mella, I mentioned Japan, they have a very good system. They also pay for that system through higher prices for gasoline (& everything else that depends on gasoline transport) and higher general taxes than here. Also, the islands in Japan that have high speed rail have much higher population densities than Hawaii Island. Portland, too, has much larger populatrion densities to draw from.
The older rail system, as I stated before, was not paid for by taxpayers, it was paid for by the business sector & was deemed no longer a viable option with the amount of damage done with earthquakes & tsumanis (just think of a train running on an elevalted rail last October.... would you have wanted to be on it?) The reintroduction of the bus service on island was also initially a private business venture(paid for by a coalition of Waikola resorts in order to transport employees from Hilo)
Something to think about:
The cost of the rail system would have to be paid for, in large part, by the full time residents....or less than 170,000 people would need to pay for the system....
We are very lucky that the county has decided to TOTALLY subsidize the current mass transit, as before they did, bus ridership did not justify the system throughout much of the island....the subsidy was a last ditch effort to maintain an island wide system. Even today, with a free bus, ridership on some of the buses is far below full (in fact, it is still rare to have a totally full bus, very few of the routes have full ridership.....
THIS FACT ALONE WOULD MAKE FOR A VERY HARD SELL ON THE NECCESSITY OF A RAIL SERVICE, as a bus service is far more flexible to the needs of the population than a rail service, and is far more flexible in case of some of the natural things that happen on this island.
Edited by - carey on 08/29/2007 18:34:51
The older rail system, as I stated before, was not paid for by taxpayers, it was paid for by the business sector & was deemed no longer a viable option with the amount of damage done with earthquakes & tsumanis (just think of a train running on an elevalted rail last October.... would you have wanted to be on it?) The reintroduction of the bus service on island was also initially a private business venture(paid for by a coalition of Waikola resorts in order to transport employees from Hilo)
Something to think about:
The cost of the rail system would have to be paid for, in large part, by the full time residents....or less than 170,000 people would need to pay for the system....
We are very lucky that the county has decided to TOTALLY subsidize the current mass transit, as before they did, bus ridership did not justify the system throughout much of the island....the subsidy was a last ditch effort to maintain an island wide system. Even today, with a free bus, ridership on some of the buses is far below full (in fact, it is still rare to have a totally full bus, very few of the routes have full ridership.....
THIS FACT ALONE WOULD MAKE FOR A VERY HARD SELL ON THE NECCESSITY OF A RAIL SERVICE, as a bus service is far more flexible to the needs of the population than a rail service, and is far more flexible in case of some of the natural things that happen on this island.
Edited by - carey on 08/29/2007 18:34:51