Short hours, inadequate marketing and a clunky payment system limit the Skyline rail line’s usefulness and therefore ridership, according to a report last week from the Honolulu City Auditor, validating residents’ complaints about the $10-billion-and-counting project.
The audit also says accessibility for people with disabilities is good inside the stations but less so outside. Federal language accessibility requirements also are not being met, it says.
The Honolulu Department of Transportation Services – which is in charge of operating Skyline, while Honolulu Area Rapid Transit is in charge of building it – provided written responses at the bottom of the audit addressing most of the concerns raised.
City officials have pointed out that Skyline is still a fledgling system, yet to reach key destinations such as the airport and downtown. As more of the guideway is built, they say, hours will expand and usefulness will improve…