Thursday, May 26, 2011

Edinburgh Light Rail Halted. The Usual Suspects. The Usual Results.

Edinburgh Light Rail called Edinburgh Trams is the second great example of what’s in store for Honolulu. The first one is Tren Urbano in San Juan Puerto Rico where the system was build at twice the original cost and five years after opening it has failed to reach 50% of its opening year ridership forecast.

The “usual suspect” is present in all three projects. Edinburgh, San Juan and Honolulu have the same consultant who prepared the rail project estimates. Here are the results so far in Edinburgh, Scotland:

  • Project originally scheduled to open in July 2011. Rescheduled to 2014 if at all.
  • Original cost was $640 million but now it over $1 Billion.
  • 72% of the construction work remains to be done but only 38% of the budget is left.
Read full article in Hawaii Reporter.