The Honolulu Light Rail will officially open some sections after a long construction delay and controversy over excess costs. It has been 12 years since the groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2012.
Starting from the departure station Kuala Kai (East Kapolei), Keoneae (UH West Oahu), Honouliuli (Honopili), Oaeae (West Loch), Pouhala (Waipahu Bus Transit Center), Halaul There are nine stations in total, including Lani (Leeward Community College), Waiawa (Pearl Highlands), Kalauao (Pearl Ridge), and Halawa (Aloha Stadium).
The total length of the route is 11 miles, and the travel time to the end is 22 minutes.
It took about 20 years and a huge amount of money to complete the partial opening.
During this period, the mayor of Honolulu changed 3 times and the CEO of HART 6 times, and a large part of the total budget of 9.8 billion dollars was exhausted.
Roger Morton, director of the city’s Department of Transportation, expressed hope that the light rail project, despite spending a great deal of time and resources, would eventually usher in a new era of public transportation.
Discussions about the Honolulu light rail project began in earnest at the end of 2004 with the election of former mayor Mouffie Hahnemann.
In 2005, the state legislature approved Oahu’s general excise tax increase to build a high-capacity transportation system, and in 2008, a poll showed that most Oahu residents supported the light rail project.
At the time, the cost of the light rail project was estimated at $4.3 billion.
In 2010, former mayor Moofi Hahnemann announced at a press conference that the project was ready to be submitted to then-governor Linda Ringle’s administration for an environmental impact assessment.
The city government set East Kapolei and Ala Moana Center as the starting and ending stations, respectively, and continued discussions on the route, history, and initial opening section.
One of the initial initiatives, which came out in 2008, was to connect West Loch and Waipau first, starting in 2013, and then extend the route to East Kapolei and Pearl Highlands a year later.
There was also an opinion that partial opening should be started in the Urban Honolulu area from the initial stage to alleviate traffic congestion, but the objection that the central Honolulu area was not suitable for constructing a large-scale vehicle intermediate base was weighed on.
The current vehicle depot is located on 43 acres of land near Leeward Community College.
According to the 2010 environmental impact assessment by the administration of former mayor Moofi Hahnemann, the initial opening section was at noon on Saturdays and Sundays with three stations: West Loch, Waipahu, and Leeward University.
Also, next up was five stations: East Kapolei, Pearl Highlands, Aloha Stadium, Middle Street, and Alamona.
In 2011, former Mayor Peter Carlisle held a press conference on the main street next to the Salvation Army Croc Center, which was under construction near East Kapolei Station, to inform residents of the Honolulu city government’s high-capacity public transportation development plan.
At the time, some residents supported the construction of the light rail line, but voiced concerns that if the route was set up around East Kapolei Station, which was still undeveloped, there would be insufficient demand.
Since then, development has been carried out around the nearby UH West Oahu and Ho’o Folly stations, starting with about 2,500 homes.
Local development became a reality, and concerns about demand for use subsided to some extent, but the opening of the light rail system became unclear, and the city government’s light rail project faced another criticism.
The city government announced the partial opening of East Kapolei and Aloha Stadium in 2017 and plans for the terminal station at Ala Moana Center in 2019, promoting a plan to build a total of 21 stations.
However, during the test run in 2021, a defect was found that the train wheels and rail crossings had different specifications, and then additional cracks were found in the station pillars, further delaying the construction.
The city government eventually cut about 2 miles of the entire line and decided to cut 2 stations to reduce the construction cost and construction period by 2.6 billion dollars.
At the current stage, the light rail terminal is Kakaako’s Civic Center, and the Ward Village and Ala Moana Center stations are left to be discussed later.
Although the area around East Kapolei, the departure station, has been heavily developed, questions about demand still exist.
Aloha Stadium, the terminal station of the partially opened route, is also considered difficult to secure a large floating population until 2028, the expected deadline for completion of the redevelopment.
Meanwhile, proponents of light rail argue that future generations will enjoy the benefits of public transportation and station areas.
It seems that the city government is concentrating on linking with buses to increase the efficiency of using light rail.
According to the Star Advertiser’s report, many bus routes have been reconfigured to pass through nine stations that are partially open.
In addition, it is expected to provide convenience by setting the bus dispatch interval to 10 minutes at peak demand or at noon and providing direct buses from the transfer center to the station.
For example, between the Kapolei Transit Center and East Kapolei Station and UH West Oahu Station, there are direct buses at specific times.
Of the nine stations to be partially opened, except for Hopili Station and Leeward University Station, all other stations have bus stops.
UH West Oahu, West Loch and Aloha Stadium stations are home to multibay bus hubs that can accommodate multiple bus routes.
Seven of the nine stations also have sections for getting on and off handivans and shared vehicles.
Five of the seven stations have parking spaces for a total of 1,275 cars.
Three locations have 304-590 units, and two locations each have 20 units.
City Department of Transportation spokesman Travis Orta predicted that within a year of partial opening, the city could expect to see about 8,000 to 10,000 daily passenger demand.
The light rail division predicts that once the Kakaako Civic Center terminus is completed, the number of passengers traveling between the starting point and terminus will reach 84,000 per day during the week.