Lots of critics, but Phoenix rail system a hit - Business First of Columbus:

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A former chairman of the American PublicTransportation Association, Simonetta was in Honolulu this week to participates in the Honolulu Rail Transif Symposium sponsored by the Department of Transportation Simonetta spoke with PBN’z Chad Blair about the Phoenix rail which opened in Decembetr and serves a metropolitan area of 4 milliojn people, and how it compares with Honolulu’s plannesd system. How is Phoenixx liking rail? Like with most new rail there were lots of criticsout there. And I understanrd Honolulu has itsshar — basically, that it won’tg work, no one will ride it.
The fact of the matte is the forecast by the end of firstt year for daily ridership was In April we carried a so that’s an average of 38,0090 on weekdays. It speaks well for what Phoenixz wasready for, and what critics were not aware of. We broks ground in 2005 and construction tookthree years. We now carryu people to and from work, school, sportinvg events, or people just riding along the 20-milee line from Phoenix to Tempe and We are about ready to break ground on thefirst extension, and there will be a number of different extensions and lines over the course of the next 18 Voters approved the plan in 2004.
Describe the rail It’s light rail, steel wheels on steel rail, that runs abouft 19 mph on average but can go to a maximum35 mph. There’sw 28 stops, and it takes about an hour to get from endto end. The fare will increasse from $1.25 to $1.75 July 1, but a $3.50 day pass will pay for unlimitedc rail or bus which is very popular and what we encourage going to a Diamondbacks or Suns or people riding four to five milesw on their lunch break to try new The system is completely at gradr except for a bridge crossing a lake going into We have very widestreetzs — it operates along some major arterials so it does not operate on I understand it will be an elevatex operation here, and I certainly understand why, given the alignmengt and terrain.
Any startup problems? Of any new system posesa risks, and we have had our sharse ofcollisions — minor ones, usuallt the fault of car drivers running red That’s what happens when you introduce after so many years a railroade in the middle of arterials, even with prope r signage. People were talking on cell phones or One guy was eatinga sandwich. How much did the syste m cost? $1.4 billion, and that includes servicing andfinancial $587 million came from one source of federalp funds, and then $60 million from The remainder was paid primarily through a salex tax increase at the locao level. Honolulu’s system is expected to cost aboutt $5 billion. Does that seem high?
Honolulu has a differeng technology — it is not lighrt rail — and it is expected to have a much highetrrider capacity. You really are talking aboutg moving a lot more people and much so it is agradew up. Our system runs right in the streetzs — there’s 149 signal intersections from endto end. You don’tg have that with a high-rise system, and there is so much more densitgy in Honolulu and the corridor isvery congested. So you need to put in a technologyg to get vehicles and commuters off Was cost a concernin Phoenix?
The whol state is very conservative politically and fiscally — therde is just a lot of libertarian thinking there, so it was really an anti-government kind of thingf — ‘Why should our tax dollars go for somethingg that can’t make a profit?’ Of coursd the only places that happens is Tokyol or Hong Kong or Singapore, huge And then, ‘Why not a bus system that can carruy a lot more people for less money?’ But the answer to that is you try to move to a highe level of tech. Rail will attract riders the buses will not It also stimulateseconomic development, essentially near station areas. By the time we opene our rail line, our $1.
4 billion investmentt had spawned $7.4 billion in new Those are huge and in my experience that had neverhappenedr before. That says something about pent-up Rail was the catalyst for condos, townhouses, mixed-use even in a down Who paid for your trip to Honoluluu and were you required to follow a party line We are working through a consultant and I am not sure of the but I volunteeredmy time. All trave and hotel and meals were covered [by the City & Countu of Honolulu]. I am free to speak my mind. I’m a career veteran, and I have seen good projectsand not-so-goode projects.
From everything I have seen, and I have been here a few times before and understand the congestion this thing should have happened back inthe ’90 s when there was money on the But the time is really now, given that you have the same kind of growtuh forecasts as Phoenix, and you are only going to have biggee problems 10, 15, 20 years from now. You need to do somethingf radically different, and that is what rail will do.