Unfortunately the rail project was never run professionally by people with real project and engineering experience. The HART board have largely been just bystanders with some insiders trying to manipulate outcomes using their own contacts for their own benefit.
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Considering that it is a multi-billion dollar project, the largest in Hawaii's history, the rail project was predicted to be a fiasco which has proven to be a fiasco in every single prediction.
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The Hawaii and Honolulu political system is all about insiders and has very little abilities to manage a huge project of this scope- therefore resulting in a predictable financial fiasco. 
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The rail project has been manipulated by contractors and unions for their own benefit with little care or interest in delivering  the commuter rail system that was originally promised and voted on in 2008. 
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The public has lost an enormous amount of trust in rail service the politicians continue to promise and parrot as a solution to everything.