Skyline average daily ridership even lower than last year

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Skyline continues to disappoint, with average ridership even lower than last year. The Director of Transportation Services said things will turn around once the second segment opens but that isn’t until 2025.

“Ridership is far less than they projected which is disappointing,” City Council Transportation Chair Tyler Dos Santos-Tam said. “The more riders we have the better it is for the system.”

The City initially projected 10,000 people riding Skyline a day. With the exception of the grand opening in last summer, that has not been the case. In fact average ridership has dipped even lower the first three month of this year.

According to the City Skyline Ridership reports, between January and March 2024 an average 3,076 people rode the rail each day. That’s compared to an average of 3,292 from June to Dec last year.

“Yea, it’s a concern to me,” Transportation Services Director Roger Morton said. “Ridership is less than I would like personally.”

The lackluster head count is costing the the city more than expected.

According to Morton, the it costs about $50 per head to ride the rail, similar to what they pay per rider on Handivan.

“We know that in the portion we operate now often times the system runs faster in peak times but often times,” he explained. “The problem is it doesn’t go to the places that people want.”

Once the next segment opens Dos Santos-Tam said the situation will change.

“The second phase goes to middle street and is going to open next year and is going to that’s going to be really transformational,” he said.

The second segment of the rail will end at the Middle Street Transit Center. According to HART, construction of the track and guideway is just about done and construction on the four stations in this segment is also expected to be finished within the next couple of months.

It’s projected opening: Spring 2025.

Until then, Morton said they are doing what they can to get more people onboard.

“We know that when we take folks out on a tour there’s a wow factor for those who have never riden Skyline before. So we’re taking the opportunity right now to do as much of that as we can, and we’re particularly concentrating on out keiki,” Morton added. “If we can get our children to be faithful public transportation users that’s going to go a long way.”

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He said they’ve recently invited a number of schools and kids groups in addition to working with other community organizations on upcoming events.

You can see the Monthly Ridership Reports and On-Time Performance percentages on the Skyline Ridership website.