Get some tips for riding the Skyline rail system for the first time. Honolulu's first segment featuring nine rail stations from East Kapolei to Halawa near Aloha Stadium opens Friday, June 30.
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VIDEO BY DIANE S. W. LEE / DLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
This timelapse shows the view aboard the Skyline rail car between Aloha Stadium and East Kapolei from the first nine city rail stations, which are slated to open June 30. A one-way ride from Halawa to East Kapolei is approximately 22 minutes, according to the city Department of Transportation Services. The ride from Aloha Stadium (Halawa) includes stops at Kalauao (Pearlridge), Waiawa (Pearl Highlands), Halaulani (Leeward Community College), Pouhala (Waipahu Transit Center), Ho'ae'ae (West Loch), Honouliuli (Ho'opili), Keone'ae (University of Hawaii West Oahu) and Kualaka'i (East Kapolei).
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COURTESY HART
An aerial view of the Kualaka‘i station in East Kapolei. Getting to or from the station will require riders to catch a bus, walk or get dropped off.
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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
The city’s new rail line begins at Kualaka‘i station in East Kapolei. Getting to or from the station will require riders to catch a bus, walk or get dropped off.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is featuring each of the nine Skyline rail stations and surrounding communities stretching 11 miles from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium starting today, and continuing through Thursday. Passengers will begin riding Skyline on Friday.
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Looking up at the beginning of the city’s rail line in East Kapolei, the seemingly abrupt terminus of the Skyline guideway appears unfinished.
And it is. City officials envision one day extending the tracks into downtown Kapolei. Yet for now and at least many years to come, the station on the fringe of Oahu’s “Second City” isn’t much of a convenient place to get to or from.
Kualaka‘i station, the westernmost of the nine stations between East Kapolei and Aloha Stadium where introductory service is scheduled to start Friday, isn’t near many homes or businesses like most of the other stations.
Getting to or from Kualaka‘i, at least for a few years or so, will require many Skyline riders to catch TheBus. A relative few may walk, but a drop-off area for passengers via car and a park-and-ride lot are to be added later.
To boost early ridership at Kualaka‘i, the city Department of Transportation Services is starting a new bus route to make it convenient for people living and working in more densely developed residential and commercial parts of Kapolei to ride rail.
This bus service will be every 10 minutes during peak service periods to match the frequency of train arrivals.
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation projects that by 2030, 60% of riders at Kualaka‘i will get to or from the station by TheBus. The other 40% is expected to walk, though there may be some who ride bikes, which are permitted on trains.
JAMM AQUINO / JUNE 17 A view from inside the Kualaka‘i station in East Kapolei.
Generally, a half-mile or roughly 10-minute walk is considered the farthest distance most pedestrians are willing to go to ride mass transit. That puts relatively few people in the vicinity now and reduces potential initial use of the Kualaka‘i station.
Previously, this station was projected to be one of the busiest at the outset of service because of a planned park-and-ride facility serving residents of Kapolei, Ewa Beach and Kalaeloa, according to the project’s 2010 final environmental impact statement.
A 900-stall lot is slated to be developed near the station, but construction procurement work for the facility isn’t expected until 2025.
HART officials have said the Kualaka‘i park-and-ride won’t be needed until more of the 19-station system opens and increases rider demand. Also, passengers wanting to park and ride or get dropped off by car in the area can use such facilities at the next two stations adjacent to the University of Hawaii at West Oahu and near the mauka edge of the growing Ho‘opili community.
COURTESY HART A posted sign directs Skyline passengers to East Kapolei or Ala Moana.
HART has no initial station-use projections. When all 19 stations are open, Kualaka‘i is projected to rank eighth in boardings in 2030 at 3,680 a day — close to midway between the expected busiest station in Downtown Honolulu (9,780 boardings) and least-used station next to Leeward Community College (1,450 boardings) — based on HART estimates revised in 2021 before full system operation was pushed back to 2031.
In 2010, the city had bigger expectations for use of the Kualaka‘i station at 7,270 average daily boardings in 2030, or fourth-most among 21 stations, including the two at Ala Moana Center and Ward Village that were cut from the project in 2022.
Ten years from now and beyond, there is likely to be considerable growth in the East Kapolei community surrounding the Kualaka‘i station, largely on land owned by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and UH West Oahu.
COURTESY HART An aerial view of the Kualaka‘i station in East Kapolei.
JAMM AQUINO / JUNE 17 The train cars are parked at the Kualaka‘i station in East Kapolei.
Long-term plans on land near the station include adding an elementary school, close to 1,000 DHHL homes and a mix of housing and commercial uses on UH land.
The nearest home today is about a five-minute walk from the station across Kualakai Parkway, at the edge of a DHHL subdivision called Kanehili with 359 homes. Two openings in a traffic noise suppression wall along the four-lane divided parkway create pedestrian access points for Kanehili residents to walk to and from the station.
A 308-unit affordable rental apartment complex called Ko‘oloa‘ula is about the same distance from the opposite side of the station. One block beyond Ko‘oloa‘ula, a DHHL subdivision called Ka‘uluokaha‘i, has grown to about 150 homes and an additional 850 or so are planned.
The only other populated connected places within a half-mile of the Kualaka‘i station are the Kroc Center Hawaii recreation complex and the first two phases of Honouliuli Middle School. A third phase of the school is scheduled to open in the next school year to serve up to 1,050 students, while a further expansion option exists to serve 1,400 students.
Rodney Villegas, a Ko‘oloa‘ula resident in 2020 when the initial segment of rail service was expected to begin before delays unfolded, said at the time that he wasn’t planning to ride rail to his construction job but might try the train for shopping in Waipahu.
Dezalynn Tiell, a flight attendant who also lived at Ko‘oloa‘ula in 2020, had said she anticipated riding rail to work when a second leg with a stop at the airport was projected to open this year. Now, this segment is expected to open in 2025.
Patricia Cooper, a city bus driver who moved into Ko‘oloa‘ula in May, said she likely would ride rail when the second segment opens because it would allow her to ride to the Kalihi Transit Center where she starts work.
“I’m not going to drive when I can sleep on rail,” she said.
The biggest employer and consumer draw in East Kapolei is Ka Makana Ali‘i, a regional shopping center with about 100 retail and restaurant tenants anchored by Macy’s, along with a movie theater and a hotel.
Walking from Ka Makana, at a little over 20 minutes, is not inviting given the distance and typically hot Leeward climate. The expanded bus service connected with rail is slated to stop next to the mall.
Stephanie England, the mall’s general manager, said in a statement, “We at Ka Makana Ali‘i are thrilled to witness the realization of the new rail system in Kapolei. It not only signifies progress, but it also reflects the significance of the entire region.”
Kualakai is the coastal area near Barbers Point and Kalaeloa in the ahupuaa of Honouliuli. There was once a spring just inland of Kualakai named Hoakalei (reflection of a lei). Moolelo make mention of Kauluakaha‘i (the breadfruit tree of Kaha‘i) as being the father of Namakaokapao‘o and planting a breadfruit tree at Kualakai where royal garments were also deposited. Kauluakaha‘i is a story about travel, navigating and wayfinding.
