Good grief!  Rail does not need a palliative for financing; it needs a technology change.  It does not need an extension of the surcharge past 2027; it needs a solution that will enable completion of the 20-mile plan while staying within the available funding of about $6.8 billion.  In short, it needs conversion to urban magnetic levitation.  And I hope that the principals of the Ulupono Initiative realize that an urban maglev would operate virtually pollution-free and is also the quietest train technology in the world.  It is time for the city and HART to enter the 21st Century and get rail done right—with maglev.