Next week marks two months since Skyline’s second leg opened to offer expanded service to riders.
The Conversation caught up with Jon Nouchi, the deputy director of Honolulu's Department of Transportation Services. He gave HPR an update on ridership numbers now that the rail goes from the Hālawa Station at Aloha Stadium to the Kalihi Transit Center, closer to downtown.
“So Skyline is actually going very well,” said Nouchi. “We're finding ourselves celebrating a little bit that we're finding new riders, and I think the airport connection has proven very key to that. We see very active on social media, people trying the Skyline connection to the airport for the first time. And that's very heartening to see people embracing a new mode.”
Nouchi added that the Lelepaua Station, which serves the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, has the highest ridership of all stations.
In total, ridership numbers are in the mid-11,000s, with the trajectory expected to grow. Transit connections on TheBus are also picking up, servicing about 9,000 people a day.
“When we first opened Skyline, everybody would get off at Āhua and make a beeline and sprint and run towards the elevators and the stairs because they wanted to make sure they made their bus connections,ʻ said Nouchi. “And after just a few short months, we see that people are confidently using the elevator, using the stairs, and not rushing, because they know that TheBus will be there dependably for them.”
“We see that in reverse to when people used to get off at the Āhua Lagoon Drive Station. They used to have to cross Lagoon Drive and everybody used to kind of be in like a pole position racing mode to try to get across and into the station, and so they could run up to the platform. And people know how the timing works now, and it is quite an elegant thing to watch.”
Skyline will be hosting a Holiday Pop-Up at the Hālawa-Aloha Stadium Station on Dec. 13. For more information, click here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Dec. 12, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
