The difficulty finding qualified volunteers to fill board seats is another sign of the chaos that has plagued the troubled rail project.

The incident is what’s known as a “hard coupling,” where two trains connect while moving too fast.

It’s still not clear how the repairs affect the city’s plans to launch passenger service early next year.

The HART board chair said she’d like to see it happen sooner.

UPDATED: Those investigating the cracks have disagreed about their severity, but the final report still isn’t out.

UPDATED: The model for how to handle transit security varies from place to place. Honolulu considered using HPD but went a different route.

Saturday’s drill was a step toward rail going operational. Questions remain on some of the structural cracking, however.

Rail’s top executive said her agency has already fixed the problems with so-called “frogs” and it’s an old issue being dredged up.