There is a new plan on the table to run Honolulu’s Skyline train all the way to Ala Moana Center, plus one more stop out in Kapolei. We read it with interest, because Ala Moana Center is the one place outside Waikiki we go on almost every trip. Then we looked at the map, and the honest answer for a Waikiki stay is: not yet, and not from the direction that would help us.
What happened
Civil Beat reported on Oct. 23, 2026 that a subcommittee of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) board, officially a “permitted interaction group,” has tentatively endorsed extending Skyline east to Ala Moana Center and west to central Kapolei, near the Ka Makana Aliʻi shopping center. According to Civil Beat, the subcommittee’s report:
- recommends a feasibility study first, then design, planning and construction only if the study finds the extensions “viable”
- puts the east segment at about 1.2 miles of elevated guideway through Kakaako to Ala Moana, with two new stations, at a rough $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion
- puts the west segment at about one more mile in Kapolei, with one new station near Ka Makana Aliʻi, at a rough $2 billion to $2.3 billion
- notes that the 2007 route through both areas may no longer work, given 20 years of development
Civil Beat totals the estimates at “as much as $4.8 billion,” and says the HART board was set to officially receive the report on Friday, Oct. 23. Mayor Rick Blangiardi endorsed extending the line in both directions in a Sept. 29 letter, and the state Office of Planning and Sustainable Development backs the proposal, per the same story. Civil Beat also says it is unclear how the new segments would be paid for or when they would be built.
Some context from the same report and from HART itself:
| Status | |
|---|---|
| East Kapolei to Kalihi Transit Center (13 stations, including the airport) | Operational, per HART’s route map; Civil Beat describes it as East Kapolei to Middle Street |
| Kalihi to Civic Center (6 stations) | Under construction; HART’s homepage measures progress against a March 2031 operational readiness date, and Civil Beat says HART’s CEO acknowledged in June the full line may not open until 2032 |
| Kakaako and Ala Moana Center stations | Listed by HART as “Future Segment”; its stations page says they “will be completed in a separate project phase” |
| Kapolei station near Ka Makana Aliʻi | Proposed in this report, per Civil Beat |
Ala Moana was in the original plan. Civil Beat says the city shortened the line to end in Kakaako to stay inside the current budget of about $10 billion. So this is partly a plan to put back what was cut.
What it changes for a Waikiki stay
Nothing on this trip, and likely nothing for several more years of trips. Nothing has been funded or scheduled. The next step is a study.
The bigger point for Waikiki visitors is geography. Ala Moana Center sits just west of Waikiki, and the extension would reach it from Kakaako, further west. So the train would arrive at Ala Moana from the far side. It would not connect Waikiki to Ala Moana at all.
As Civil Beat describes the recommendations, they cover only Ala Moana and Kapolei, so Waikiki is not part of them. Civil Beat says the subcommittee repeatedly heard support for extending the line to UH Mānoa, but that is not among the recommendations it describes. For what it’s worth, a separate “minority report” from a HART board member in June did sketch an elevated Waikiki segment, about 1.2 miles to Fort DeRussy at roughly $1.06 billion, according to Civil Beat’s June coverage. That idea did not make it into this proposal.
The one trip it could someday change is the airport. Reading HART’s route map, the airport station is already on the line. If Ala Moana Center became a station too, that would be one train with no transfers from the airport to the mall. For a Waikiki hotel, you would still need a bus, trolley or car for the last stretch.
There is also a money angle, even if you never ride. Civil Beat says most of the rail project is paid for by Honolulu’s half-percent excise tax surcharge on goods and services, which brings in about $360 million a year. Civil Beat says it expires at the end of 2030 unless the Legislature extends it, and the Legislature meets in January. The state Department of Taxation lists the 0.5% county surcharge as effective through Dec. 31, 2030. For scale, half a percent of a $100 grocery run is 50 cents. Visitors shop in Honolulu too, so in a small way we are all chipping in, whether or not we ever ride.
What we would do — and what we wouldn’t
We don’t rent a car. Our trips to Ala Moana Center are on the Waikiki Trolley Pink Line or TheBus, and on arrival day, the airport run is a rideshare straight to the door, suitcases in the trunk. Skyline has never been part of our routine, and today its eastern end is Kalihi, nowhere near Waikiki.
So here is our call:
- We would change nothing about how we get to Ala Moana Center. A train that arrives from Kakaako does not beat a trolley from Waikiki.
- We would not plan a trip, or a hotel choice, around this. Today it is a recommendation for a study. The approved line ending in Kakaako is itself years away.
- If you stay near Ala Moana or in Kakaako and travel light, this is the version of the story worth following. A one-seat ride from the airport to a station near where you sleep would be a real convenience, at least when you pack light. With big suitcases, we’d still pick the car.
- If you want to try Skyline today, it runs between East Kapolei and Kalihi Transit Center, with a stop at the airport, and nowhere near Waikiki. Treat it as an outing, not a way to get to your hotel.
And honestly, if Skyline ever reached Waikiki, we would at least try it to the airport on a light-luggage trip. That plan isn’t on the table right now.
Before you plan around this
- Everything here is as of Oct. 24, 2026, Hawaii time. HART’s event page listed a board meeting for 8 a.m. Friday, Oct. 23, the meeting Civil Beat says was to receive the report; we have not seen what the board said or did.
- The report details (segment lengths, station counts, cost ranges, the feasibility-study recommendation) come from Civil Beat’s reporting. HART’s board materials load through a document viewer we could not open, so we have not read the report itself.
- The costs are rough estimates, and Civil Beat notes a federal consultant has warned that rail costs appear to be climbing again.
- Station status and the March 2031 date are from HART’s site. Check honolulutransit.org for the current word, and TheBus or the Waikiki Trolley for the trips you will actually take this week.
If your stay looks like ours, with Waikiki, Ala Moana Center and back to the room by mid-afternoon, you can file this one under “interesting, someday.” For downtown construction that does touch the road now, we covered the Ala Moana Boulevard lane closures for Skyline’s downtown station earlier this month.
