Over 71,000 passengers ride Skyline in first 5, free days

More than 71,000 passengers boarded the city’s new Skyline rail system over the initial five days of free rides — with the first full day of paid rides expected to provide the first real indication of how much interest people have in riding rail’s initial 11 miles.

Wednesday’s paid ridership numbers are scheduled to be released today. At midday Wednesday, the parking lot at the Halawa station across from Aloha Stadium — the system’s biggest with 580 spaces — was about half full. Trains arrived and took off with far fewer passengers than boarded packed trains over the weekend.

Lori Kahikina, CEO and executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, which continues to oversee construction of the rail project, said that it’s natural to expect that the early “excitement” of free rides may fall Wednesday with the start of paid ridership.

“I was pleased to see everyone turn out,” she said. “But I’m assuming it’s going to drop.”

The initial segment of 11 miles of track and nine stations from East Kapolei to Halawa opened Friday with 8,942 passengers riding a truncated, four hours of service.

Several passengers oohed and aahed at the elevated mauka and makai views they had never seen, along with the convenience of avoiding street traffic. Others complained about unexpected bumpy rides, and stops and starts at the rail stations.

The numbers of initial passengers grew to 14,216 over the first full weekend day of service Saturday, then peaked Sunday with 17,500 riders.

The number of passengers dropped to 12,946 on Monday before spiking to 18,108 on the Fourth of July, according to the city.

Friday’s numbers were estimated by city staff using hand-held counters because the gates were open and no HOLO cards were required.

Saturday’s free ridership provided actual data based on the number of taps of HOLO card users to open rail’s gates, even though rides remained free through Tuesday.

Combining both Friday’s estimates with actual HOLO taps, the total added up to 71,722 passengers for the first five days of free rides, according to the city.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser that the numbers were within “internal projections that were unprecedented” of somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000.

“I told (Department of Transportation Services Director) Roger Morton he was a psychic,” Blangiardi said. “I was very pleased. We were very pleased. It was like getting up to the tee and knowing we hit (a ball) 250 yards. I’m happy for the community. It will only get better. It will only get better from here.”

DTS forecasts that 8,000 to 10,000 riders on average will ride Skyline per day.

Some Halawa station passengers told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Wednesday that they were curious about riding the most expensive public works project in Hawaii history, estimated to cost $9.8 billion to reach Kakaako in 2031.

Keoki Pizarro, 45, rode Skyline during opening weekend for the experience, then returned Wednesday to pay to board TheBus that included a ride on a rail train to get to the Kamakana Ali‘i shopping center in Kapolei.

Because they’re from the Windward side, Pizarro does not expect to ride rail much, but praised the experience.

“It’s a totally different experience than TheBus,” Pizarro said. “You get to see a lot of cool views.”

Other passengers such as Alexa Arcega, a 26-year-old University of Hawaii at Manoa student, rode TheBus Wednesday from campus to the Halawa station, then boarded a train to the Waipahu Transit Center, which led to a 15-minute walk to her home in Waipahu.

Arcega wants to figure out whether taking TheBus to ride rail is more convenient and efficient than just riding TheBus, which she said became more complicated after DTS on Saturday adjusted bus routes to coordinate with arrivals and departures of rail trains.

Arcega said she was confused by the new bus routes and schedules on the Fourth of July.

“I still want to try it out,” Arcega said.

Co-workers Chania Caouette, 27, and Tim Almuena, 21, on Wednesday took advantage of their day off from the Salt Lake Target store to drive from their homes in Aiea, park at the Halawa station and then board Skyline to get to the Ewa Beach Local Joe West coffee shop. Local Joe West is a two- to five-minute walk from the UH-West Oahu Keone‘ae station.

Caouette called her inaugural ride Wednesday a “10 out of 10.”

In a statement Wednesday, DTS Deputy Director Jon Nouchi, said: “DTS is proud to welcome all riders onto Skyline to experience the quick, efficient, and sustainable reliability of Skyline when combined with our high-quality TheBus and Handi-Van services. The strong demand throughout the fare-free period demonstrated our island’s resident and visitor interest in learning about our newest, high-capacity transportation option. A project 55 years in the making, from first plans to last week’s grand opening, we are honored to debut this long-awaited service for the benefit of everyone, now and into the future.”