There's certainly been more anti-rail discussion lately. This could be because rail looks like it's going to cost more with less federal support, and won’t solve the traffic problem. Or it could be that our old friend, Ben Cayetano, is putting his money where his mouth is, in court and now in the mayoral election.

And four speakers are coming, experts on rail, public policy and finance and demographics. They’re Adrian Moore, PhD, VP of Public Policy at the Reason Foundation; John Charles, president and CEO of the Cascade Policy Institute; Randal O'Toole, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute; and Wendell Cox of Demographia, and Visiting Fellow from Heritage Foundation.

They'll all be speaking about rail at the Kapolei Satellite City Hall at 6:00 p.m. on February 28th and at the Mission Memorial Auditorium next to City Hall downtown at 12:30 p.m. on February 29th.

They’re a group with powerful credentials and arguments against rail, many of which the City has never properly addressed. We're glad they're coming, and we're glad this conversation is happening and in fact widening. We only wish we had heard them earlier.

Their common denominator is that rail is too expensive. You can take a look at the video of my recent interview with Wendell Cox on thinktechhawaii.com. He makes the case that our city has billions in liabilities, that we’re in a long term recession, that our government is too big, that it can't collect enough to operate, and on top of that we’ll have to pay way more than $6 billion.

That said, it’s crystal clear that we need stop the rail project as soon as possible.

Do you feel it? People who were on the fence are turning against rail. The silent majority waiting in the wings seems to be more engaged now and many of them are moving to anti-rail. We don't know what the dynamic has been, but it sounds much more grassroots than before.

Ben Cayetano is running on an anti-rail mandate. The people who vote for him will be voting against rail. Hopefully he'll gain some traction on this issue, and that’ll be a huge message. But if he wins, what exactly what can he do about rail? He should tell us more.

Anyway, now there's light at the end of the tunnel. Rail is a monumental waste of money that will break the back of our middle class and thus our economy, so these speakers will be worth listening to. If you have a chance, you might want to attend their talks and see what you think.