HI: Council questions Honolulu transportation director about rail audit

A Honolulu City Council committee this week took on some of the criticisms raised against the Skyline rail system in a February audit, including the need for greater public access to trains and stations, including to seemingly off-limits restrooms.

At a Planning Committee meeting Wednesday, Council members shared their concerns over perceived limits on access to rail stations for the disabled, the public’s difficulty in using station lavatories, and reports that the city’s HOLO cards, which allow ridership on public transit, were in short supply.

Most of these issues came to light in the Office of the City Auditor’s Feb. 27 audit of the city Department of Transportation Services’ operations of Skyline’s over-$10 billion automated fixed-guideway rail system, which plans to fully open for public service by 2031.

The audit, conducted from January through December 2024, stated DTS’ goal in operating Skyline was to accommodate 8, 000 riders a day after a full year of service.

“We found that despite a favorable reliability rate of 99.2 percent, ridership on the Skyline rail system has fallen short of expectations, with a 44 percent decline from its opening in July 2023 to December 2023, ” acting city Auditor Troy Shimasaki wrote in a message to the Honolulu City Council. “This decline is attributed to several factors, including limited service area coverage, inadequate operating hours, and insufficient integration with other transportation modes.

“Additionally, public transportation commuters face disproportionately longer travel times compared to solo drivers, diminishing Skyline’s appeal as a commuting option, ” Shimasaki said. “Lastly, marketing efforts, including social media campaigns, have been less effective compared to peer transit systems, resulting in missed opportunities for collaboration with local events and businesses.”

He added: “Despite generally positive rider feedback on the overall experience, concerns persist regarding limited payment options, insufficient station amenities, and the need for extended operating hours.

“These challenges highlight the need for strategic changes to improve ridership and enhance the system’s overall performance, ” he said.

Shimasaki said his office “found that Skyline stations provide accessible rail cars that meet design standards.”

However, “the surrounding areas present safety and usability concerns that undermine the accessibility goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act ( ADA ) and local pedestrian access guidelines, ” he said.

“Furthermore, DTS is responsible for the multimodal movement of people and goods on roadways which includes riders getting to and from surrounding areas including bus stops, pickup areas, and crosswalks, ” Shimasaki said. “Observations conducted at Skyline stations revealed a variety of hazards, including trip hazards, poor sanitation, and insufficient infrastructure for individuals with disabilities.

“These issues not only pose safety risks but also increase potential liabilities for the city, ” he added. “To ensure equitable and safe transit access, the department should address the gaps in compliance and infrastructure surrounding these stations.”

A few days after the audit was first released, Shimasaki publicly admitted that a significant calculation error occurred—mis ­takenly citing a 77 % decrease in rail ridership from July 2023 to December 2023. The correct percentage decrease in rail ridership was later determined to be almost 44 %.

At Wednesday’s committee meeting, DTS Director Roger Morton—much as he’s done since the audit’s initial release—disagreed with many of the report’s findings, particularly over ridership numbers.

Morton’s dispute centered on the audit’s use of data from when the system first opened for public ridership on June 30, 2023—in which there were a few fare-free days during that Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The DTS director also addressed ADA issues at stations.

“Many of those issues were ‘opinions’ of the auditor on issues that were outside the station areas, ” Morton said, “for example, along Kamehameha Highway, at bus stops and those things. That’s not the Americans With Disabilities Act, which is a regulatory act ; that’s a different best-practice issue.

“And we think it’s a little dangerous, frankly, to try to conflate the pothole on Ka ­me ­hameha Highway with an ADA issue that DTS is responsible for, ” he added. “That just shouldn’t be the case.”

But during Council questioning, Val Okimoto spoke to the difficulty for many in public to access the limited number of restrooms installed at Skyline stations.

“This was actually brought up to me yesterday, ” Okimoto said, adding she was also told rail ridership would likely rise if more rail station restrooms were publicly available, “even if it was a Chemi-Toi (portable toilet ).”

Morton replied, “No. 1, it’s our policy that customers that need to use the restroom should be able to ask an employee to open the restrooms.”

He said his department “will emphasize ” to Tokyo-­based Hitachi Rail Honolulu JV—which operates Skyline’s trains and its stations on a contract valued at more than $323.1 million, which includes cleaning and janitorial services—“that they need to follow their own policy.”

“Because they have a policy that if people ask they will get access, ” added Morton, “and we’re going to take that up with them.”

He also said that segment two terminates at the city’s Middle Street Transit Center—a spot where “two excellent, large restroom facilities (are ) right on the platform, that are open to the public.”

Still, Morton argued that restrooms at Skyline station posed “too many problems and too many issues, ” including vandalism as well as expense.

“All of the stations have restrooms ; they’re kept clean. We don’t want to leave them open, unattended, because that does become an issue of high cost and crime, ” he explained. “And I don’t really want to have attendants, because that adds to cost.”

But Okimoto queried, “Can there be a way for it to be more accessible ?”

“I think that we can do a job in monitoring access availability and calling the contractor when necessary, ” Morton replied.

The audit also recommended keeping the public better informed about city rail overall.

Morton agreed that “more robust marketing programs ” for Skyline should occur. This would include ramping up marketing efforts over the scheduled Oct. 1 opening of the city’s second segment of Skyline, which will run from the old stadium, past the airport, to Kalihi, he said.

“We want to involve other parts of the city with expertise in marketing, ” he said. “That would include Enterprise Services, that would include the mayor’s communications team … so we can have an all-of-city plan to make sure segment two is successful.”

Andria Tupola highlighted the audit’s claim that the city’s inventory of HOLO cards—contactless smart cards used by the public to pay for rides on Honolulu’s public transit system, including Skyline—were at risk of running out.

To that, Morton said the HOLO card issue was recently remedied. “For the shortage, we finally have an order out, ” he added. “We expect 360, 000 cards by June, so that’s good.”

DTS, he claimed, is also exploring an “open payment option ” that will allow riders to use either a credit card or an app on a smartphone to pay for rides on the city’s transit system. The department’s target date to start that type of payment option is March.

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