At 1, city leaders say, Skyline is a toddler with lots of potential — and some growing up to do

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A year after launching the first segment of Skyline, city officials are happy with its performance — even though ridership is covering a tiny fraction of the rail line’s costs.

But rail leaders insist, once they’ve built more, the riders will come.

Public transit systems never pay for themselves. Experts say in typical cities, fares only cover about 20% of the costs — with taxpayers contributing about 80%.

With the added cost of Skyline, Honolulu’s bus and rail system is falling well short of that.

Even so, city and rail leaders are proud of getting rail running efficiently after so many years of delays and cost overruns. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said it was difficult to meet the expectations of the federal government.

“They expected us to perform, and we did, and I’m really proud of that,” he said.

But because the first rail segment from Kapolei to a shuttered Aloha Stadium doesn’t serve many employment centers, ridership has been disappointing.

Just 1,165,821 one-way trips have been recorded in the year, an average of 3,185 a day.

There is reason for celebration, though. The company running the system for the city says operations have been nearly flawless. “So far, this has been the best start and implementation of a driverless system in the world,” said Jason Lurz, Hitachi director of operations and maintenance.

Lurz said Skyline is the newest of 13 automated rail systems operated and maintained worldwide by Hitachi rail systems. He said 99.5% of its operational goals enforced in the city contract were met.

Hitachi’s 250 employees, its trains and operating system are the biggest element of Skyline’s $85 million annual cost. But with the low ridership on the first segment, the best estimate of fare collections is tiny — only an estimated $617,441 or less than 1% of the cost.

(Applying an exact dollar figure is a challenge given multiple prices per ride and special rates for different or multiple users.)

Looking at the bus and rail system together, which city Transportation Director Roger Morton said is the fair way to judge the subsidy, it gets better. The bus received about an 80% subsidy from taxpayers. Combined with Skyline’s 99% subsidy, taxpayers are covering 87%.

As the rail line lengthens — to Pearl Harbor, the airport, downtown and Kakaako — operational costs will not increase substantially but added riders will improve the proportion paid by fares.

“I’d like to see it get to our target of 35% by the time we open in town,” Morton said.

For some people, the numbers are already in the black.

Makalapa worker Kristoffer Juguerta says he saves hundreds by taking the rail.

“It’s paid for by the government. They supplement the cost on a monthly basis,” Juguerta said. “So, it really saves a lot of money. You know, I’d rather do this than spend 300 bucks a month on gas.”

He said in three months he saved enough to pay for the scooter he takes on the train.

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