Rail Report Reveals Little About Ansaldo's Problems
06/21/2011
Ansaldo Honolulu
City Council Transportation Chairman Breene Harimoto traveled more than 7,000 miles to Copenhagen, Denmark, on a fact-finding rail trip and reached this conclusion:
"In short, it’s not only how well you build a system that counts, but how well you operate and maintain it."
That finding is contained in a 13-page report obtained Monday by Civil Beat. The long-awaited document was filed more than seven weeks after Harimoto and City Council member Ernie Martin returned from the trip to Copenhagen, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The trip was planned after Mayor Peter Carlisle announced the city selected Italian rail manufacturer Ansaldo for a $1.1 billion contract to design, build, operate and maintain Honolulu's proposed rail system.
Because other cities have reported a wide variety of problems with Ansaldo, Harimoto said he wanted to meet with officials in those cities to learn from their experiences. Once the trip was planned, two other rail companies protested the city's decision to select Ansaldo. A spokeswoman for the city told Civil Beat last week that officials are "still in the process of reviewing the two protests."
The trip stirred controversy when Civil Beat revealed that the two council members had been told by the city's lawyers that Harimoto and Martin shouldn't ask certain questions and should be careful about what they reveal to the public, given the protests.
Instead, Harimoto promised a detailed report of their observations — facts but no opinions — for the taxpayers who funded the trip.
Martin and Harimoto explained the delay in producing the report, saying Harimoto has been sick in recent weeks. In May, Harimoto said they were too busy with the city budget process to complete the report.
