April has been a banner month for the Honolulu rail system, which made headlines in the past few weeks with some major achievements.
First, the Skyline reached a record number of nearly 13,000 riders when heavy highway congestion prompted more residents to choose public transportation over being trapped in traffic.
Additionally, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation celebrated a major milestone for Segment 3 of the Skyline mass transit system.
HART CEO Lori Kahikina spoke with HPR about the milestone, which was the pouring of the first guideway column that begins the Skyline's foray into Honolulu's urban core.
To learn more about the achievements and ambitions for Skyline, HPR spoke with Jon Nouchi, the current director of transit under the city’s Department of Transportation.
Nouchi discussed why the city felt it was necessary to look at possibilities for Skyline, even though there still may be many years before the rail reaches downtown.
“The potential is high right now,” Nouchi said. He hopes the recent landmark ridership achievement will buoy more support for the Skyline.
“I am a true believer, if they try the system, and once you get that visual of being above all the congestion and being able to see what you're not suffering through, people tend to make this a habit,” Nouchi said.
That same potential extends not only to the rail’s ridership numbers, but to the rail itself, which is carrying out studies to potentially expand the rail network further across Oʻahu.
“I think people would be very pleased to know that we are embarking on a West Oʻahu high capacity corridor study, which envisions, how do we bring the benefits of something like Skyline further west?” Nouchi said.
He clarified that no funds have been dedicated to extend Skyline. But the studies are there to prepare the rail for any future extensions, whether they be further west into Kapolei or further east towards the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus, as many have hoped for.
“We just want to be, as they say in the industry, maybe shovel ready, or at least have primed the pump so that if we ever do identify a future source of funding for this, and we'll be just ready to go,” Nouchi said.
Despite the Skyline’s bumpy start and its fluctuating public opinion, building an effective public transit system for the people of Oʻahu remains a passion for Nouchi.
“I'm just really pleased that I'm lucky enough to sit in this role… I'm really looking forward to being able to deliver to our residents a multimodal system of choice,” Nouchi said. “And I think we're halfway there.”
This story aired on The Conversation on April 29, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
