Will the Rail help Honolulu traffic?!
Date Night on Da Rail
Every Thursday afternoon and evening, my husband Mike—who is also a busy Honolulu real estate broker—and I have a weekly date night. If we don't dedicate this time together, our work inevitably takes over our schedules. The only other time I block off my schedule is Sunday mornings for church.
A couple Thursdays ago, we decided to ride the newish Honolulu train. Its official name is "Skyline," run by HART (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation). Mike and I call it "Da Rail" to go with Oahu's bus system, "The (Da) Bus."
We parked at the end of the line at the now-shuttered Aloha Stadium. It's one of the 9 stations that opened last summer, and one of only 3 stations currently with a parking lot. It was a beautiful day—can you see the full rainbow over the Stadium?
Let's Holo Holo (Let's cruise)
When I lived in Honolulu a very long time ago to attend UH, I used TheBus quite a lot. The timetables were pretty useless - you never knew if the bus arriving was super late or super early. In contrast, the rail comes often and on time - a great improvement considering "island time"! But beware, the rail stops operating at 7pm.
We paid $2 for a HOLO card (which can be refilled online, on mobile, or at a kiosk), and then added $3 which gave us 2.5 hours of unlimited riding on Da Rail and/or Da Bus, now integrated on the same system. It takes 22 minutes from the Stadium to the other end, at Kapolei, so we did one round trip. There are also daily ($7.50), 7-day ($30), monthly ($80, must start on 1st), and annual passes ($880). There are reduced passes for seniors and those with disabilities, as well as elevators at the stations (but no bathrooms).
One child 5 and under can ride free with a paying adult - but they're not allowed to have their own seat... not really a problem right now. As you can see from the photo above, the train was woefully empty at 4pm. The "middle of nowhere" nature of the current stations may be to blame.
The Kapolei end of the line is impractically far from the Ka Makana Ali'i mall and most Kapolei neighborhoods other than Ho'opili. Even for current Ho'opili residents, it's at least a 20-30 minute walk to the station.
The location of the Stadium station is an 11 minute walk to the Arizona Memorial, but there aren't any other businesses within walking distance. Conceivably, this will change as seen on this concept flyover video - but that's only if the county moves forward with a new stadium and entertainment district; there's a new bill this month proposing to use the funds for Maui survivors instead.
The map below shows the current line in purple and the future lines in orange and green - with expected completion dates of 2025 to Kalihi, and (gasp) 2031 to the middle of Kaka'ako. Here again, the middle of Kaka'ako location is a bit random and would be inconvenient for tourists and other local users. If you happen to own or live in one of the condos close by though, it will be a great selling point. At least you will be able to ride the rail to the airport!
Will rail alleviate Oahu's infamous traffic?
Back around 2012, Oahu was named the worst U.S. city for traffic. Proponents of the rail jumped on this dubious ranking saying the rail will reduce the number of cars on our roads. (Interestingly, as the metrics used to measure changed, Honolulu is no longer anywhere near the worst anymore, according to this older but super nerdy and interesting article.) IRL, commuters and Realtors know that leaving town to go west between 3:00 and 6:00 still feels like the worst in the world. From the train we caught a glimpse of that afternoon rush hour, passing over the H-1 freeway after the Pearl City exit:
For those who live and work near a rail station, or for those looking for a fun date night activity, look forward to a pleasant ride with views never seen from a car! As for taking cars off the road and improving traffic... the verdict is out until 2031 when the line goes into town. I don't think any tourists staying in Waikiki will use the train even when the airport station opens... unless they want to catch an Uber from the middle of Kalihi or Kaka'ako.
Have you ridden the rail? What did you think? Have you ridden trains in other cities? Which system was the most efficient and easy to use? I'd love to hear your experiences—please comment!