Honolulu offers free rides on the rail during June 30 launch

Nearing a major milestone for the largest public works project in the state’s history, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced Wednesday that the first phase of the city’s nearly $10 billion rail transit system will begin interim passenger operations starting at 2 p.m. June 30.

On that day and time, the city says the public will enjoy free rides on Hitachi Rail’s driverless, all-electric trains — with one, four-car train accommodating up to 700 people — on the line’s first 11-mile segment, between the Kualakai Station in East Kapolei and the Halawa Station near Aloha Stadium. That same day, a grand opening celebration — featuring dignitaries and entertainment — will be held at the Halawa Station, the city said.

Passenger service to additional stations farther east along the line — still under construction by Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and its contractors — is expected to commence in phases, with the final build-out expected to be completed by 2031.

“This is truly a momentous and historic day for the island of Oahu. Today’s announcement marks the culmination of decades of hard work, perseverance and overcoming difficult challenges of every kind,” Blangiardi said in a written statement. “We are pleased for the public to experience first-hand the transformative effect the rail will have for our island home.”

The mayor’s announcement defied his own prior declaration — made during his State of the City address March 14 — that the rail line would begin operations by July.

During a news conference at the line’s Halawa Station on Wednesday, Blangiardi declared the rail line was “actually ahead of schedule.”

The mayor’s comments brought applause from city and rail officials who appeared.

“Let’s get ready to ride!” yelled City Council Chair Tommy Waters, who also received cheers from the assembled group. “Ladies and gentlemen, get your HOLO card, it’s possible — it’s clean, it’s safe, it’s efficient and then you go.”

Soon after, Waters thanked the mayor, city staff and HART for “promises kept.”

“This administration came in and said ‘We’re going to get it done’ and they did, they got it done,” Waters said. “This is just the beginning because we’ve got a whole other segment to go and we’re going to get it done as well.”

HART Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina thanked city, state and federal officials for their support of the rail project since she assumed leadership of the rail agency in 2021. She also noted the difficulties of the project, including repairing hairline cracks to T-shaped concrete supports — known as hammerheads — that were discovered in 2018 atop the columns used to support individual rail stations.

“I’m really excited to open this system and get people on the trains,” she said.

Roger Morton, the city’s Department of Transportation Services director, said the city’s rail line has been more than 50 years in the making.

“Some people measure this from 2011, myself, I go back to 1968 with the Oahu Transportation Plan which essentially put a rail system on the books so that they could serve people on the west side,” Morton said. “Because even back then they knew the west side was going to keep growing and the freeway capacity was not going to be here, and this is really part of a promise that is being made today … the first part of the promise is to provide people with an alternative way to get to work very quickly.”

After the news conference, Blangiardi said he arrived at the decision to open rail’s first phase by June 30 because the project had made progress despite its many issues including cracked column supports along the line.

“I understand that on social media a lot of people were in disbelief that July would never happen but this is what happens if you know what you’re doing and here, we should know what we’re doing, and this is a good call and I’m very pleased we’re going to start it,” said Blangiardi during an appearance on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program Wednesday. “Actually, for the first time in a long time we’re delivering and doing something on time that we said we’re going to get done, even a day earlier, but I’m not going to split hairs about June 30 to July 1, the fact is we’re starting.”

As far as rail ridership and alleviating traffic congestion on island roadways, Blangiardi said the trains will be a mark of efficiency.

“The trains are going to come every 10 minutes,” he said. “And from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium is a 21-minute ride.”

The mayor added that the first phase will carry about 10,000 riders a day to Aloha Stadium, noting as the rail line continues eastward — past Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, the airport and on into downtown — that ridership numbers should increase.

“Then by the time we get to Middle Street, it will jump to about 25,000 riders a day and then when we get to full service, somewhere in the latter part of the decade, it will be about 85,000 a day and everything has been mapped out that way,” he said.

Still, Blangiardi said he would not comment about how many cars would be removed from Oahu’s thoroughfares due to the addition of rail.

“I’m not going to make any predictions on cars off the road; this is a place where we have more cars registered than (actual) residents,” he said, “but for those people who choose to take the rail, this is going to be a very efficient means from getting from one place to the other and it’s only going to increase that way as time goes on.”

Meanwhile, all rides on the new rail system will be free for the entire opening weekend, a period spanning between 2 p.m. June 30, the day the system opens, until the last train runs Tuesday, July 4. Additionally, TheBus will also waive fares for all riders between July 1 and 4, the city says.

Also, between 2 and 6 p.m. on June 30, rail passengers will be welcome to tour any of the nine stations that will be open for service and hop on any train, in either direction, free of charge, according to the city. Fare gates will be open to all riders until service ends at 6 p.m. that day.

Beginning July 1, the first full day of rail service, passengers must have a valid HOLO card — used as the fare payment method for TheBus and will serve as the primary payment method for rail as well — in order to take advantage of the free fare service. Riders will be required to tap their HOLO cards at fare gates to enter individual stations, but fares will not be deducted from those cards, the city says.

Learn More

>> For more information about the HOLO card, visit holocard.net or call 808-768-4656.

>> For further information on the rail operations system, visit honolulu.gov/rail.