It’s time to bring
rail service back
I am not surprised by the state Department of Transportation’s plans to spend taxpayer money to study the question of “building more roads” between Puna and Hilo (Tribune-Herald, Oct. 10). Building more roads is great for engineers and contractors, but it does nothing to address underlying Big Island transportation problems.
We don’t need more roads and more traffic — more than 90% of those 22,000 cars traveling from Puna to Hilo carry only one passenger! We need new ideas to move people, rather than tons of metal around our island.
One hundred years ago, we had efficient rail service between Puna, Hilo and Hamakua, but those services ended after World War II because of competition from automobiles, trucks and the devastating 1946 tsunami.
Those railroad rights-of-way still exist in large part and could be used to restore efficient, low-cost transportation options for commuters and shoppers. Rail lines are less expensive to build and maintain than are roads, and could greatly reduce the unsustainable environmental costs of single-passenger car use.
Perhaps county fuel taxes need to be raised to encourage commuters to use public transit rather than private automobiles?
If more asphalt is to be laid, use it to build bus-only, high-speed lanes along existing roads.
The Hawaii County Transportation Commission is a toothless entity that mainly serves to regulate the taxi industry and to serve the wishes of road-building interests. Give this commission some powers to “think outside the box” and to support long-term planning for our transportation needs!
John Lockwood
Volcano
Ridiculous comparison
of Biden and Trump
I cannot let the letter from Allen Russell in Your Views (Oct. 13, “President Biden messed up U.S.”) pass without challenge lest I become complicit in this false equivalency.
Mr. Russell seems to forget the many legal visitors denied entry into our country by former President Trump.
The one classified file found in Biden’s former vice president’s office does not compare to the many boxes of files found in the bathroom of Trump‘s Florida home.
Biden immediately relinquished that file, while Trump refused to return the files requested, as well as further concealing them.
Trump became cozy with dictators like those in North Korea and Hungary, as well as Putin.
These are only a few of Trump’s egregious offenses against our democracy.
Lois Margaret Drake
Volcano
