Skyline (Honolulu)
Skyline is a light metro rapid transit system in the City and County of Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, in the state of Hawaiʻi. Segment 1 of the project opened on June 30, 2023, and lies entirely outside of the Urban Honolulu census-designated place, linking East Kapolei and Aloha Stadium in Hālawa. Segment 2, connecting to Pearl Harbor, Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and Middle Street, opened on October 16, 2025. Segment 3, continuing the line across Urban Honolulu to Downtown, is due to open in 2031. Its construction constitutes the largest public works project in Hawaiʻi's history.
The, automated fixed-guideway line was planned, designed, and constructed by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, a semi-autonomous government agency. Hitachi Rail, who also built the railcars used on the line, operates Skyline for the Honolulu Department of Transportation Services. The almost entirely elevated line is the first large-scale, publicly run metro in the United States to feature platform screen doors and driverless trains. In, the line had an annual ridership of, or about per day as of.
History
Plans for a mass transit line to connect Honolulu's urban center with outlying areas began in the 1960s, but funding was not approved until 2005. Debate over the development of a rail system in Honolulu has been a major point of contention in local politics, especially leading into the 2008, 2012, and 2016 mayoral elections. Controversy over the rail line was the dominant issue for local politics in the late 2000s, and culminated in a city charter amendment which left the final decision to a direct vote of the citizens of Oʻahu. Construction of the rail line was approved by 53% of voters in November 2008, and ground broke on project construction on February 22, 2011.Previous projects
For more than 50 years, some Honolulu politicians have attempted to construct a rail transit line. In 1966, then-mayor Neal S. Blaisdell suggested a rail line as a solution to alleviate traffic problems in Honolulu, stating, "Taken in the mass, the automobile is a noxious mechanism whose destiny in workaday urban use is to frustrate man and make dead certain that he approaches his daily occupation unhappy and inefficient."Frank Fasi was elected to office in 1968, and started planning studies for a rail project, named Honolulu Area Rapid Transit, in 1977. After Fasi lost the 1980 reelection to Eileen Anderson, President Ronald Reagan cut off funding for all upcoming mass transit projects, which led Anderson to cancel HART in 1981. Fasi defeated Anderson in their 1984 rematch and restarted the HART project in 1986, but this second effort was stopped in a 1992 vote by the Honolulu City Council against the necessary tax increase.
Fasi resigned in 1994 to run for governor, with Jeremy Harris winning the special election to replace him. Harris unsuccessfully pursued a bus rapid transit project as an interim solution until he left office in 2004. His successor, Mufi Hannemann, began the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project, the island's fourth attempt to build a mass transit system operating in a dedicated right-of-way.
Hannemann thought it was "prudent to move quickly" to show the FTA that Honolulu was committed to the HHCTCP. An environmental impact study had not been completed at the time of signing the first construction contract with Kiewit. The FTA needed a complete environmental impact statement before moving Honolulu forward in the grant-awarding process. Hannemann's urge to move fast in the project ultimately allowed stakeholders to delay some important foundational work such as the environmental impact study.
Studies
The City and County of Honolulu Department of Transportation Services released the first formal study related to the HHCTCP on November 1, 2006, the Alternatives Analysis Report. The report compared the cost and benefits of a "fixed guideway system", along with three alternatives. The first expanded the existing bus system to match population growth. A second option called for a further expansion to the bus system, with improvements to existing roads. The third alternative proposed a two-lane flyover above the H-1 freeway between Pearl City and Honolulu International Airport, continuing over Nimitz Highway, and into downtown Honolulu. The report recommended construction of the fixed guideway, and is considered the city's official justification for building a rail line.A second planning document, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, studied possible natural and social impacts of the construction and operation of the HHCTCP. The DEIS was completed and cleared for public release by the Federal Transit Administration on October 29, 2008. After minor changes were made to comply with state law, the document was distributed via the city's official project website four days later. The DEIS indicated that impacts of the rail project would include land acquisition from private owners on the route, displacement of residents and businesses, aesthetic concerns related to the elevated guideway, and noise from passing trains.
The city was criticized for timing the release only two days before the 2008 general election. City Councilmember Ann Kobayashi, running as a mayoral candidate against incumbent Hannemann, suggested that the city deliberately withheld key information to early voters who had already cast their ballots for the mayoral candidates, and a city charter amendment related to the project. The anti-rail advocacy group Stop Rail Now criticized the report for not further discussing bus rapid transit and toll lanes, options studied earlier by the city in its Alternatives Analysis.
The third and final official planning document, the Final Environmental Impact Statement, was approved and cleared for public release by the FTA on June 14, 2010. The FEIS addresses and incorporates public comments received regarding the DEIS. The FTA subsequently declared the environmental review process complete in a record of decision issued on January 18, 2011.
Native burials
Like most major infrastructure work in Hawaiʻi, construction of the rail line was likely to uncover historic human remains, notably in its downtown Honolulu section. The Oʻahu Island Burial Council refused to sign a programmatic agreement on October 21, 2009, over concerns about likely burial sites located along the line's proposed route over Halekauwila Street in Kakaʻako. Three construction projects in the area since 2002 have each encountered unforeseen human remains that led to delays, and archaeologist Thomas Dye stated, "The council is absolutely right that you should expect to find burials on Halekauwila Street".The Burial Council's core contention was the city's decision to conduct an archaeological survey of the rail line's route in phases, meaning construction on a majority of the line will be complete by the time the survey in the Kakaʻako area is performed, which in turn would increase the likelihood that any remains discovered would be moved instead of being allowed to remain in situ. In response to the Burial Council's concerns, the city agreed to begin conducting an archaeological survey of the area in 2010, two years earlier than originally planned. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources later signed the city's programmatic agreement on January 15, 2011, over the continuing concerns of the Burial Council.
The city's decision to conduct the archaeological survey in phases subsequently led to a lawsuit filed on February 1, 2011, by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation on behalf of cultural practitioner Paulette Kaleikini. The suit, which named both the city and the State of Hawaiʻi as defendants, contended that state law required the full length of the rail line to have an archaeological survey conducted before any construction took place, and sought to void the environmental impact statement and all construction permits issued for the project. Kaleikini's lawyers filed on February 18 a request for an injunction to stop work on the project until the case was resolved. The suit was initially dismissed in March 2011 by Circuit Court Judge Gary Chang. However, after Kaleikini's lawyers appealed, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruled in August 2012 in the plaintiff's favor, finding that the State Historic Preservation Division did not comply with state law when it approved the project. The case was then remanded to Circuit Court. In December 2012, the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii granted the plaintiffs' injunction, and ordered that all construction-related activities be halted until compliance with the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court decision was met. Judge Tashima, the sitting judge on the case, ruled that the city is required to file periodic status updates on their compliance with the judgment. The injunction would then terminate 30 days after defendants filed a notice of final compliance.
In February 2013, the rail authority said that they had completed the required archaeological surveys and that construction would resume later that year. The agency reported that remains were discovered at seven sites in the downtown area, and that if it was decided to leave them in place, then they "would be able to adjust the final design to accommodate that request".
Impact on Honolulu mayoral elections
The importance of the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project in the 2008 mayoral election led one observer to describe the vote as a "referendum on rail transit". Two challengers emerged as rivals to incumbent Mufi Hannemann: City Councilmember Ann Kobayashi and University of Hawaiʻi professor Panos Prevedouros. Kobayashi supported a rubber-tired mass transit system as opposed to the conventional system chosen by the Hannemann administration. Prevedouros, on the other hand, as a noted highway advocate, opposed any type of mass transit project and instead favored construction of a reversible tollway over the H-1 freeway. No candidate won a majority of votes in the September 20 primary, forcing a runoff between Hannemann and Kobayashi; Hannemann successfully retained his post with 58% of the vote in the November 4 general election.On April 22, 2008, the Stop Rail Now advocacy group announced their intent to file a petition with the city to place a question on the 2008 ballot to create an ordinance that read: "Honolulu mass transit shall not include trains or rail". Stop Rail Now attempted to submit the petition with 49,041 signatures on August 5, but was initially denied after the city clerk claimed the city charter did not allow the petition to be submitted less than 180 days before a general election, as the wording of the petition called for a special election. The group filed a lawsuit to force the city to accept the petition, and the courts ruled in Stop Rail Now's favor on August 14. Stop Rail Now's effort ultimately failed on September 4 when the city clerk deemed only 35,056 of the signatures valid, well short of the 44,525 required.
In response to the possibility that Stop Rail Now's petition would fail, the City Council had however voted on August 21 to place a proposed amendment to the city charter on the ballot, asking voters to decide the fate of the project. Mayor Hannemann signed the proposal the following day. The City Council's proposed amendment was not intended to have a direct legal effect on the city's ability to continue the project, but was meant as a means for Oahu residents to express their opinions on its construction. The charter amendment was approved with 53% of votes cast in favor of rail and 47% against. Majorities of voters in Leeward and Central Oahu, the areas that will be served by the project, voted in favor of the amendment, while the majority of those living outside the project's scope in Windward Oahu and East Honolulu voted against it. In mid-2010, Hannemann resigned as mayor to run for governor and Kirk Caldwell assumed the position of interim mayor.
In the 2016 Honolulu mayoral election, the main three candidates again took opposing views on rail. Honolulu City Council Member Charles Djou, former mayor Peter Carlisle, and incumbent Kirk Caldwell all ran with the stated goal of finishing the project. However, Republican candidate Djou ran on a platform of drastically cutting spending on rail by cutting funding on buying cars on the rail before its completion and hiring mainland consultants. Caldwell also stated that spending on rail should be cut, but instead believed that the line should be shortened to end at Middle Street. Carlisle was the only candidate in support of funding the full rail system, staying that rail has progressed too far to be stopped midway. While Caldwell won the election, he quickly adopted Carlisle's position that the project should be seen through to completion.