Four teenagers trespassed at the future Aloha Stadium rail station, wandering on the electrified tracks. This prompted warnings from HART that touching the "third rail" carrying 750 volts could cause death by electrocution, as the rail system is undergoing testing with live power at all times. HART security footage showed the teenagers checking out the station platform and tracks unawares of this danger, underscoring public safety messages to stay off the rail line.

1. HONOLULU AUTHORITY FOR RAPID TRANSIT (HART) & THE RAIL PROJECT
Lost In Space
Space has no top, no bottom; in fact, it is bottomless both at the bottom and the top.
Edgar Wilson Nye
No Man Living Knows Where The Bottom of It May Be.
Beowolf
HART WARNS PUBLIC TO STAY OFF TRACKS
By Leila Fujimori, Honolulu Star Advertiser, August 13, 2021
<https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/08/13/hawaii-news/hart-warns-public-to-stay-off-tracks/?HSA>
Four youths who scaled the fence to get on the platform of the city's new Halawa
(Aloha Stadium) rail station didn't steal, vandalize or paint graffiti on the walls.
From closed-circuit television camera surveillance footage of the Aug. 2 incident, it appeared
the three females and one male, possibly in their teens or 20s, were just checking things out,
walking along the platform, sitting on the benches and looking over the rail.
But then they got on the tracks, and that could have cost them their lives, said the Honolulu
Authority for Rapid Transportation in a news release Thursday with photographs and a video
of the incident.
The “recent break-in could have resulted in death,” HART said, warning the public about the
“third rail,” a track energized with up to 750 volts of electricity that powers the train. The
track is live when tests are being conducted, which can happen at all hours, day and night.
The third rail is UNDER GRAY SAFETY COVER PLATES ALONG THE TRACKS,
CLEARLY MARKED ON YELLOW STRIPS with BOLD BLACK LETTERING:
“DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE”. [Emphasis Supplied]
The planned 20-mile elevated guideway, estimated now to cost $12.449 billion, will be the
nation's first fully automated driverless light metro train system.
See also: Yahoo! News, August 13, 2021 <https://news.yahoo.com/hart-warns-public-stay-off-161400128.html>
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1 Eversholt Street London NW1 2DN
<https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/looking-after-the-railway/track/third-rail/>
We have the largest third rail network in the world, powering electric trains, and it's
mostly found on tracks in the South East of England.
When we talk about the third rail, we mean the live rail which provides electric power
to a train through a conductor placed alongside the rails.

2. HOW THIRD RAIL WORKS
Third rail systems are always supplied from direct current electricity. Trains have metal
contact blocks ('contact shoes') which make contact with the conductor rail. Conductor rails
are mostly steel (a specially conductive type).
Conductor rails have to be interrupted at level crossings, crossovers (a pair of switches that
connects two parallel rail tracks) and substation gaps. Tapered rails are provided at the ends of
each section, to allow a smooth engagement of the train’s contact shoes.
ELECTRICAL SUBSTATIONS
Because the third rail is a very inefficient conductor (most of the electricity we put into it is
lost as heat) we have to give the voltage a boost every mile or so and that's why we have
substations. These take 33kv AC from our railway ring main, convert it to 750V DC and pump
it into the rails.
THE HISTORY OF THIRD RAIL
Third rail systems were installed from the 1920s onwards as in those days it was cheaper and
more suited to metro operations. The last length of third rail was installed in the 1980s
down to Weymouth.
It wouldn't be installed now as it is simply not safe enough for staff and there are
considerable costs associated with the sheer number of Substations and Track
Paralleling Huts required to keep the voltage from dropping too low to run trains.
YOU vs. TRAIN CAMPAIGN
The third rail is probably one of the most difficult dangers to see. It looks just like an ordinary
rail, but it carries 750 volts – easily enough to kill you. The DC current that flows through is
three times as powerful as your home electricity. It's designed to send power to the train, but
you are 70 percent water and the perfect conductor – it will pull you in and not let go until the
emergency services are able to switch the power off.
Research shows that in particular a large proportion of young people remain unaware of
its potentially fatal dangers.
The You vs. Train campaign, run by Network Rail and the British Transport Police, is
targeting teenagers to hammer home the dangers present on the railway, whether
obvious like a train, or hidden like the electric current in the third rail or trackside
facilities.
The only way to avoid these dangers is to never step foot on the railway in the first place.
KEEPING THE WORKFORCE SAFE

3. Network Rail has a clear safety vision: Everyone home safe every day. Conductor rail
safety is designed around our staff, who are trained to work on track.
For our staff, in stations and around staff walking routes, the third rail is guarded by
kickboards. When our staff are working around the rail, they can use yellow plastic guards
that slot over the live rail. In addition, there are hookswitches, which manually remove the
cables from the live rail, and Negative Short Circuiting Devices, that achieve the same end
using switches in substations.
The live rail is split into electrical sections that can be isolated from each other, while
allowing power to flow to other parts of the railway. However, trackside workers are trained
to assume the power is always live.
[Emphasis Supplied]
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HART SAFETY & SECURITY [Extract from 33 Slide Presentation]
<https://www.slideshare.net/civilbeat/hart-safety-security>

5. ___________________________________________________________
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6. HART WARNS THAT WANDERING ON THE ELECTRIFIED RAIL LINE
COULD BE DEADLY
By Marcel Honore, Honolulu Civil Beat, August 12, 2021
<https://www.civilbeat.org/beat/hart-warns-that-wandering-on-the-electrified-rail-line-could-be-deadly/>
Honolulu rail officials are warning the public to stay off the future transit system's track now
that the rail line is electrified, following a recent TRESPASSING incident at the future Aloha
Stadium station. [Emphasis Supplied]
Anyone who touches the so-called “third rail” — the electrified track that helps power the
trains — “will be shocked and could die instantly from electrocution,” the Honolulu Authority
for Rapid Transportation stated in a news release Thursday.
Closed-circuit security cameras captured four teenagers TRESPASSING at the station and
wandering on the track on Aug. 2, 2021. [Emphasis Supplied]
HART Security Video [Running Time 11:01 Minutes]
<https://d1l18ops95qbzp.cloudfront.net/wp-content/2021/08/12171808/10.9.1.54-Camera-47011%40S09-003-2021-08-02_21h44min00s000ms.mp4?_=1>
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HART ISSUES STERN WARNING AFTER RECENT BREAK-IN
TRESPASSING COULD BE DEADLY
By Hawaii News Now Staff, Published: August 12, 2021
<https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2021/08/12/hart-issues-warning-live-third-rail-after-group-breaks-into-aloha-stadium-station/>
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation issued a
public warning Thursday, saying that the rail that powers the train is fully energized and
touching it can result in death. HART explained that because testing on the rail system
remains ongoing, the “third rail” has 750 volts of electricity flowing through it at all times,
meaning that anyone who touches it will be shocked and could die instantly from
electrocution. Furthermore, officials added that because the trains are driverless, they may
move in any direction at any time, without warning. This announcement comes after
surveillance cameras captured four people BREAKING INTO the Aloha Stadium rail
station in Halawa and WALKING ALONG THE TRACK.
Please View HART Security Video at Beginning of the Article
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John Pritchett for Honolulu Civil Beat, May 9, 2021