As early as '18 (this linked article is a '19 revision)
The Journal was reporting on the "boondoggle" (White or Pink Elephant to our overseas colleagues
) this HART project has become:
Fair Use:
The train through paradise should have been complete by now.
The dream was an elevated rail system to bypass what has been some of the country’s worst traffic, whisking commuters from the farmland and swelling suburbs of West Oahu into the heart of Honolulu. The 20-mile route parallels one of the world’s most glorious tropical shorelines.
More than a decade after inception, having spanned the tenures of three mayors and three governors and outlived its most powerful benefactor in Congress, the project is only half built. Hopes it might transform the crowded island city anytime soon are fading.
Among the cascade of problems: Honolulu pushed ahead before fully planning the project, and nearly 100 contracts had to be reworked, causing delays. The city began construction before fully checking Native Hawaiian burial grounds, and a judge halted the project for over a year. Planners built too close to power lines, so Honolulu must shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to move them.
Dogged by such blunders, the project has seen its price tag soar to more than $9 billion from about $5 billion. The cost overruns are among the largest that transportation experts say they’ve ever seen. The cost has led to an extra excise tax on businesses, which can affect the price of goods and services, and it has hit tourists through an expanded hotel tax.
Somebody is going to be a guest at Hotel Graybar before this is over.
Incidentally, submitting this material at another site during '18 resulted in my being "run off" by whoever actually runs such. Apparently this violated two of their unwritten rules:
1) Submission of material inimical to passenger rail.
2) Submission of material sourced from the Wall Street Journal
Mr. Lordsigma "stuck up for me"; and for which to this day, I thank him.