Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Historic opening ceremony for Skyline Segment II

Transcript

Historic opening ceremony for Skyline Segment II · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

0:14
Welcome to the One Oahu podcast.
0:16
I'm Brandi Higa and today is Thursday, October 16th, 2025.
0:21
And today is a historic day.
0:23
Years in the making.
0:25
Opening day for passenger operations for segment two of skyline.
0:30
The city's rail system can now transport passengers from East Kapolei
0:34
through Pearl Harbor and the airport.
0:36
Major destinations.
0:37
Major employment hubs here on Oahu.
0:39
Skyline now runs all the way to Kahauiki
0:42
Middle Street station.
0:44
Next, we'll sit down with Lori Kahikina, the executive director and chief
0:47
executive officer for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid
0:51
Transportation, or Hart.
0:52
The folks that built the system.
0:54
But this week, to mark this historic day, we're bringing you
0:57
the audio from yesterday's opening ceremony for skyline segment two.
1:02
On this joyous and momentous.
1:04
Occasion and. Morning.
1:06
I. Am privileged to introduce our first.
1:08
Speaker at the podium. Ladies and gentlemen,
1:12
please welcome the mayor of the City
1:14
and County of Honolulu, the Honorable Rick Blangiardi.
1:25
Thank you.
1:25
Julie.
1:25
I always welcome you to use that official voice of yours.
1:29
Hey, I just want to say,
1:30
first of all, to everybody, welcome to all of our distinguished guests
1:33
and all of you.
1:34
Quite honestly, I think you all you all distinguished so many people, played
1:37
an important, vital role in getting us here today.
1:40
So many of you in this audience.
1:42
So just hopefully you'll take the the general open.
1:46
For what it's worth, I would tell you this morning,
1:48
my heart is full of pride and gratitude.
1:51
I can't express that enough.
1:54
As I just said, so many of you have played a key role.
1:57
But I know those of you who know me and
1:59
probably know me a little too well, the times
2:02
I put a real premium on leadership
2:04
and I have great respect for it when I see it in action.
2:08
And so in that regard, where's it going to fail me trying to talk
2:11
about my relationship with Lori Chi Kino and what she's meant to this project.
2:16
I first met Lori, nearly five years ago.
2:20
And that was after an eight month campaign
2:23
and the zoom calls and every one of those zoom calls.
2:26
I promise you, I don't know how many there were, but there were many.
2:29
You know, the subject of Ram was a topic of discussion
2:33
and every emotion that you could possibly imagine,
2:36
and unfortunately, more to the negative was being offered.
2:39
And so there was I met Lori for the first time.
2:42
I'd never met her before.
2:44
She's sitting on one side of the table like somebody was with me.
2:47
I'm on the other.
2:48
Both of us going into jobs.
2:50
Neither one of us had ever done before,
2:52
but certainly cognizant of the significance of this challenge.
2:56
You know what it would mean to the people of this island.
2:59
And quite honestly, for the state of Hawaii,
3:01
if we could turn things around from when we
3:04
when we already been cautioned by both the outgoing incoming FTA administrators
3:09
that this project was the worst in the country.
3:12
One small challenge, no small statement
3:15
to take on what war has done
3:18
over the course
3:19
of the last five years is truly remarkable, and her leadership,
3:23
her energy, her spirit, I mean, she's just put everything into it.
3:27
So, Lori, this is your day, your hour.
3:29
I give you great credit for everything that's happened over the last five years.
3:33
And I would be remiss if I also didn't acknowledge, because she's with us today.
3:36
Her retired former deputy, Ricky Loser.
3:39
He's in the island right here, Rick.
3:41
For every step of the way, all the financial planning,
3:43
everything we had to do to put together for that recovery plan,
3:46
you can go to Washington.
3:47
We can convince them
3:49
that we could do it and do it right, to do it well and do it on time.
3:52
So I really can't thank you enough. Two of you.
3:55
Senator shots is not
3:56
here this morning as represented by the chief of policy, Dale Hahn.
3:59
But I do want to mention Senator Johnson, because his guidance and his capabilities
4:03
and everything else he provided us was invaluable in this process.
4:07
So please convey your wishes to the senator in Mahalo for all that he did
4:13
and to our two mayors that are here this morning,
4:15
mayor and McCollum and folks both personally and privately.
4:19
And we're grateful that you're here today.
4:21
You share in this moment for all that you did.
4:24
You know, all the challenges we took on, because we all know this was not easy.
4:28
This is about this.
4:29
This is about doing something that had never been done before, against the odds.
4:33
And you guys played a vital role with it.
4:35
And so we thank you both for being here and for your leadership.
4:39
To, Roger, Roger Moore and John Dolce,
4:43
Roger Moore and director, Transportation Services, right from the get go.
4:47
This guy's transportation guy, inside and out.
4:49
Your wisdom, young man.
4:51
You could share with us in the senator you brought to some insane moments.
4:55
I can't thank you enough.
4:56
Roger. And I have great conference.
4:58
The only been operating rail now since June 30th of 2023.
5:02
And and I want to acknowledge the people who would talk to you as well,
5:05
because they've had such a big role in all of that.
5:08
We're operating on a 99.84% on time.
5:11
Accuracy remains an incredible system, and there's a lot to be said,
5:16
lot to be said for that.
5:17
And I'm very confident in what we've gotten done thus far.
5:21
And I believe.
5:21
Operator with this next segment today, much has been said
5:23
over the last couple of days about it being a game changer.
5:27
That's because it is, and I'll talk about that in a minute.
5:30
But I want to recognize some people.
5:31
Council Chair Tommy, one of the first people we dragged
5:34
into the office who we begin this whole operation, said to me,
5:37
we're going to need you.
5:38
We're going to need your leadership of the council.
5:40
We're going to need the council to collaborate with us.
5:44
We don't have any time for drama.
5:45
We don't have any time or energy for anything
5:49
that's going to get in our way, because the stakes are high.
5:51
And Tommy, you and the council, all of you have delivered.
5:54
We've gotten through this unprecedented amount of collaboration and cooperation.
5:58
For that to you, Tommy, into the council.
6:01
I'm very, very grateful.
6:03
Mahalo for all your caring and all of your efforts over all these years.
6:07
More recognize he's not here to be a former chair.
6:10
You just stepped down from his own abusive relationship
6:13
with the hard fought and the hard fought for that matter.
6:17
I'm not so sure I can even put into words how much Colleen brought to this project.
6:22
How much she knew.
6:24
How tough she was for guidance, for understanding of the challenges
6:28
we were facing
6:29
and how she helped us navigate through that with a hard fought anxiety.
6:33
And so we certainly want to wish Connelly the very best that she played.
6:37
We can tell you what you just said earlier.
6:39
I never did the job before.
6:41
This is a quick study.
6:42
Once you became operational, to get into someone's personal guidance.
6:46
To me was probably some of the best coaching I've ever had on anything.
6:51
You know, her great debt of gratitude, as we all do
6:55
to our friends at the
6:55
FDA, tell us, I think they're going to be watching on TV.
6:58
They're going to be here this morning with us.
6:59
But I think we all know
7:01
what's happening in Washington that precluded they're being punished.
7:05
But, you know, the something that was challenging as it was,
7:09
I felt, from Ray and from the other people with the FDA
7:13
once we got our plan, put together nothing but complete support,
7:16
and we had to overcome some disbelief that they had to be honest with you, Lori,
7:20
that wasn't part of the joy of the whole thing
7:22
was watching them react to the success that we were finally created
7:26
with the determination that we had to succeed.
7:29
And so it's been really a very, very great relationship.
7:33
And so I'm going to just give that up to Ray, to Dennis while he's here.
7:36
Was Dennis was up, I hate to say Washington lobbyist
7:40
I'm sure you've got a better title than that, but this
7:44
this guy here has been a beacon for us
7:47
in DC and helping us understand and navigate
7:50
all that we've had to navigate through in the dory, the position
7:54
I've been selling, if you will, of our recovery plan.
7:57
What about the obstacles we would face in all but honestly, again,
8:00
incredible, incredible country.
8:02
And and I think I know you've done that for other mayors.
8:05
A couple of in the city here today.
8:07
I just owe you.
8:08
Great debt of gratitude
8:10
because we wouldn't be here today without that kind of advice.
8:12
You. Thank you very much for that.
8:15
Somebody I'm going to embarrass right now, the moment, because I can't,
8:18
as I told them this morning, because I am the script in this program.
8:22
And that is Mike, former managing director of the city county Council,
8:25
because life has been I've used the word 2 or 3 times.
8:28
I'm not trying to overuse it,
8:29
but this is what I said in my heart, full of gratitude today.
8:33
Mike's knowledge, his expertise has been incredible.
8:38
It's been invaluable in so many difficult decision making moments
8:42
because that's what this was.
8:43
In order to solve this problem, understand this problem, develop
8:46
the solutions that we were looking for and execute.
8:49
I rely tremendously on Mike.
8:51
He was there.
8:53
Not every meeting of the day.
8:55
He was there every day, day and night, no matter what the time
8:58
was, weekends or whatever.
8:59
Any time on this project.
9:01
Tremendous, tremendous, tremendous amount.
9:03
I can't thank you enough.
9:05
I don't mind if I embarrass you a little bit because you deserve it.
9:09
I also want to thank our entire team, but one of who was here today,
9:13
this is a team that really works together.
9:15
We have a lot of different priorities right now at the city.
9:18
I think everybody knows that.
9:20
But they all come together and they've all been very, very supportive
9:23
of anything and everything we could do.
9:24
And I know you would be times
9:26
when you need multiple departments to come to your aid.
9:28
And they were there.
9:29
And I'm proud of you guys for working like that.
9:31
I'm proud of everything we've been able to achieve together.
9:34
And really for this moment.
9:36
So let, let me let me just
9:39
say this.
9:39
I have less somebody I don't I hope I haven't because I really wouldn't
9:43
want to hurt anybody because this is a joyous thing.
9:48
But this begins
9:50
an unprecedented service for the people of long,
9:55
you know, who were disadvantaged and have not been forced laid
9:59
to Austin for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which was not exactly
10:03
a desirable place to go, and for that matter,
10:05
the multimodal service out of there was a bit of a handicap.
10:09
You really couldn't sell the convenience.
10:11
You and the efficiency to get it
10:14
from these couple length to long, staying with 23 minutes.
10:18
But that really wasn't what we needed.
10:21
What we needed was this next segment.
10:23
And so for the very fact that we were disadvantaged,
10:25
we were determined to do a couple of things
10:28
over the last couple of years, since June 30th, 2023,
10:32
when we opened that first phase,
10:35
we were determined for a second.
10:37
We were determined to focus on ongoing construction
10:40
to get here as fast as we could
10:43
in the operation of the rail in our stations, and all the personnel
10:47
come together to create this entity, knowing full well when
10:50
when this day came, we be ready, moving forward and ready.
10:53
And that's what we did.
10:54
We did not focus on ridership, but we will now begin
10:58
to focus on ridership because it's important criteria.
11:01
You build a transit system like this for people to use it.
11:05
It's not like we didn't.
11:06
We got the people riding it, but we knew we didn't really have the right.
11:09
Often transit systems that built are designed to take people where
11:12
they want to go, where they need to go, and all the other benefits relate to that.
11:17
And that is the education right now. Look at this.
11:19
This is quite honestly,
11:20
we've had nearly a couple of decades of cynicism to overcome.
11:24
So everything is about to happen.
11:26
But the operation of this second segment will be unprecedented.
11:30
And we are up to that task.
11:31
And I promise you, we've committed I put a stake in the ground, and I said
11:34
a minimum of 25,000 hours a day over the course of the next year.
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And that's no small
11:40
challenge, but I'm confident we can get there and we will get there.
11:44
So we begin expanded hours 4 a.m.
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to 10:30 p.m., 4 a.m.
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to 10:30 p.m., seven days a week, 365 days a year.
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There's been nothing like that on this island.
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Ever. Ever.
11:59
That's why this is historic and not only that, what comes
12:02
with the efficiency of time and money?
12:06
What comes with the safety issues, but the predictability,
12:10
the predictability that you now can go from each couple in
12:15
two Aloha Stadium with 23 minutes
12:17
to 27 minutes for additional minutes to Pearl Harbor and another five minutes
12:21
to the airport, 32 minutes from Kapolei to the airport.
12:26
With certainty.
12:27
And if you missed that train to be another one coming in ten minutes,
12:30
what that does to you
12:32
all the frustration, the anguish and the exhaustion of that daily commute
12:37
and the stresses that
12:39
not the least of which the wear and tear and the cost to anything else
12:43
is incredible benefit to the quality of life, to the people who live here.
12:47
We're really proud of that.
12:48
And we're going to make sure that everybody understands that.
12:51
I have a lot of confidence because once people go on skyline,
12:56
you're going to realize all of that.
12:58
We've got Wi-Fi air conditioning on.
13:00
And for those of you
13:01
who haven't been on it yet, the federal viewpoint, it's all good.
13:05
It's just is everything about this project.
13:08
Despite the years we've had getting beat up
13:12
is nothing but good, pure good.
13:15
All right.
13:15
Anything that nobody talked about, I think somebody who used to come from New York
13:20
or from Connecticut to New York City, and I work with CBS in New York,
13:26
we have to talk about it because we built it from west to east.
13:29
We always talked about right into town.
13:32
The truth of the matter is, we're the real value proposition
13:34
is going to show up for so many people.
13:36
That's one thing in the morning to be able to do it efficiently
13:40
or for that matter, the energy you have maybe known for a while.
13:42
You have at least an hour commuting time, but now knowing that you can get there
13:48
is going to be really difficult thing in terms of the cut off.
13:51
But the big thing is the ride home.
13:53
We never talked about the end of a workday.
13:56
When you're tired and when you're not sure what the highway is going to offer you
13:59
and how quickly you can get home for dinner for your kids, practice
14:03
to get your wife or your husband or whoever for some engagement that night.
14:07
You got to go home and just you can now do that.
14:09
And that kind of certainty was an incredible value proposition
14:13
seven days a week, 365 days a year, from 4 to 10:30 a.m., brother,
14:18
with trains coming every ten minutes, is an incredible
14:21
contribution to transportation and to people on this island.
14:25
And I think it takes away with so many people on the West side,
14:29
the anguish that they've had to put up and resign themselves.
14:32
Once you decide to live on the West Side, if you work in town,
14:35
you have a blue team day in and day out.
14:38
I feel that that is such a great contribution.
14:40
You know, I don't know if we get said enough about government and service
14:44
to the public, but if this is not the quintessential example
14:47
of service to the public, I can look back to the vision
14:50
and what we did and what brought this to reality.
14:52
I don't know what does.
14:54
So on that note, I just want to thank you all for being here
14:57
extremely proud, grateful to everybody.
14:59
This was no small achievement.
15:00
It deserves celebration in the future, ahead with you guys than it ever has.
15:04
But bless you all. Thank you.
15:16
Thank you very much.
15:16
Mayor Blangiardi.
15:18
As the mayor, said a little bit earlier, the Honorable
15:21
Brian Schatz, United States Senator for the state of Hawaii, could not.
15:25
Make it here today.
15:26
But we'd like to thank Dale Hahn for being here representing the senator.
15:30
And also, senator sends his.
15:32
Congratulations and his heartfelt aloha on our celebration today.
15:38
Please welcome from the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
15:41
Director and snippet.
15:51
Aloha.
15:51
My aloha.
15:54
And I'm so happy to be here and be honored to be here
15:57
on behalf of Governor Green, who sends his apologies job right now.
16:02
But his congratulations to.
16:04
You already in your administration for what.
16:06
An amazing pastor
16:07
and Hillary for pushing, pushing this forward to get this done today.
16:11
Well, I got to tell you this, this is,
16:14
this is a long ride for everybody coming down here.
16:17
We could look back into why it took so long, but let's not
16:22
let's look at where we are today and what we're going to be going for.
16:26
Really appreciate this big push.
16:28
I mean, this this is this is marking point a serious note for our connected
16:34
and resilient and sustainable system that we've been looking forward
16:37
to for this long time.
16:38
And it's changing a lot of perspectives.
16:41
I don't know how many of you
16:42
guys in this audience of my age when we started voting for rail.
16:45
And, you know, a couple of times that the previous measure pushed it through,
16:49
how many of you voted for rail,
16:52
how many of you voted for rail
16:53
because you wanted the person in the car next to you to ride rail?
16:58
Right.
16:58
I mean, those were the perspectives that we grew up with.
17:00
We all we all
17:01
grew up in love with our vehicles, in love with the way we transport ourselves.
17:05
This is changing the mindsets, not giving us that opportunity.
17:08
Now, to really consider
17:09
rail is not an alternative mode of transportation, but is a choice
17:13
you know, fit our lifestyle and ensure that the community sport.
17:16
It also fits the goals of the state and of the counties,
17:19
making sure that we get
17:20
a more sustainable future, making sure we can clean ourselves up,
17:23
from the mess that we built ourselves into all this time, and ensuring that now
17:27
we have this $10 billion investment into home, ensuring that
17:31
now we have the infrastructure to build around it,
17:33
to build the housing that we all say we need.
17:36
We all were elected on when we when we pushed forward
17:39
on these different pieces and make sure that we're working to educate the public,
17:43
no small task.
17:44
And all of this was made sure and made possible
17:47
because of all the connections that we had with the community,
17:50
the counties, partnership with all of their partners.
17:53
Federal. Definitely.
17:55
Senator Charles has been tremendous on this project.
17:57
The communication, the coordination between the state
18:00
and the county have been tremendous in this area.
18:02
And for us, starting with the legislature,
18:03
really appreciate our legislative partners for funding a bunch of this project.
18:07
Without the GT, this project doesn't go far.
18:09
So really appreciate the support as we went through on the state side,
18:13
made sure me and that everybody understood this is not a city project.
18:18
Any time somebody came up with some negativity
18:20
about the project and said, no more, it's not.
18:21
It's not under you know what it is.
18:23
Government is government.
18:24
Nobody cares. Housing.
18:26
It's everybody cares that government works and we made sure a staff
18:30
made sure that we worked with the city to ensure that this all was connected, to
18:35
make sure that we work with the public,
18:36
said we understood where we're going to go and what we're going to be,
18:39
and in the end, everybody will benefit from this.
18:42
So thank all of you in this room for everything you've done to get
18:45
us to this point.
18:47
And I'll let you know in ten years,
18:51
when everybody's benefiting from this, nobody will care what you did.
18:55
But in the D.O.T.
18:56
speak, science is thank you.
18:58
And that should be enough.
18:59
Thank you very much, everybody.
19:07
Mahalo.
19:07
And please welcome the executive director and chief executive.
19:11
Officer of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid.
19:13
Transportation, Lori Connie Aquino. Oh.
19:24
There's a long.
19:24
List of people I need to to thank her.
19:27
And, that took her.
19:28
That took her?
19:29
Where are you at, Matt Tucker?
19:32
I was had the honor to receive an award, several months ago.
19:36
And we had dinner right before it was a national award.
19:38
You said you had her speech prepared.
19:40
Is it what speech?
19:42
I thought we just go on stage, get your award, and you go off.
19:45
You don't get to say anything goes.
19:47
There's been one star.
19:49
Other women getting the award work months on this, on your speech.
19:52
So he's like, he texted me last night.
19:54
Do you have a prepare for tomorrow? Tomorrow's it.
19:56
I don't I was just gonna I'll just go by the seat of my fiance,
20:00
but I figured I was right.
20:01
This would be like, I better make a list, make sure I thank everyone
20:04
who got us to this point today.
20:07
Starting with the federal level,
20:09
like we have the delegation and little,
20:12
men are going to be here today, but without them,
20:15
this project wouldn't have started, including our past two mayors right here.
20:19
These folks took a lot of heat to get us to where we are today.
20:23
Mayor Blangiardi legislative on myself.
20:25
We get to pick the accolades would be thanks to a lot of groundwork and taking
20:30
the beatings first.
20:32
Of course the federal agencies FTA, I think w
20:35
a lot of our funding also comes from down and on the state level.
20:40
Governor, he was quite supportive when we had to do our recovery plan
20:44
and get the environmental work done.
20:46
If you didn't push to get our reevaluation done, we would have opened.
20:49
We wouldn't have opened segment one for the state legislators, as it's
20:55
my share of our comments coming from the state estate
20:58
industry and AT&T and of course, the State Department,
21:03
the successes that we have had over the last several years,
21:06
it all boils down to relationships.
21:08
Rick and I have talked about it for years, and there's no other proof than this.
21:13
When we move over to the city administration and mayor.
21:16
Mayor left out, some stories, when we first met, that
21:21
that meeting, like, for me, he knew me before somebody set up the meeting.
21:25
And our meeting.
21:27
That was the most fun interview I had.
21:29
I never met you before, like you said, mayor.
21:31
And actually, the one thing I remember was,
21:36
I'm quite insulted.
21:37
Why didn't you apply for your EMV position?
21:40
And why didn't you apply for exposition?
21:42
Do we not want to work for me?
21:44
I said I had nothing to do with that.
21:46
It was this challenge.
21:47
I, I don't know if many of you know the story.
21:50
When I came over to Hart, my family, my friends,
21:55
my colleagues, said you shouldn't do it.
21:58
This is, professional suicide.
22:00
I see.
22:01
I think I can make a difference.
22:03
I can't do any worse. Right.
22:05
So it is really
22:07
critical in only go up.
22:09
So let me try before I if I can do it all the way.
22:11
But at least I'll try.
22:13
So city administration, city council has been tremendous.
22:16
We folks have been so supportive.
22:19
It was a little rocky when I first came in,
22:21
and understandably so, a reputation we needed to get over it.
22:24
But now the council has been extremely supportive.
22:27
Just Bill 60, that was unsolicited, and the city council is doing that
22:31
so I can continue to work with my team to do extensions.
22:35
So if that passes, that's the first step.
22:38
Those are the first steps to keep us moving
22:40
the city departments.
22:42
Many of you are here and whether you know it or not, as directors,
22:46
your staff have been instrumental in getting us to where we are.
22:51
There is a something that just happened.
22:53
Roger. That's not I think you're here.
22:56
Roger and Dan indeed.
22:58
We're having issues with one of our big 1 or 2
23:00
conduits, one through, to keep the conduits under the canal.
23:04
I call just to ask, do you folks have tools that could possibly help us?
23:08
And they really stepped up,
23:09
and they've been working with us to try and help us get over some of the homes.
23:13
DPI I call Don and and Brian.
23:16
We're stuck.
23:18
Termites are stuck in here. Please help.
23:20
It's land acquisition or contractors are moving so quickly.
23:23
We need to get your get the permits.
23:25
You need to turn around.
23:27
You turn it all over land.
23:28
And so these are just too minor.
23:30
They're huge for us.
23:31
But two small examples that without these relationships,
23:35
none of this, none of this would have happened.
23:38
Mayor, the other thing I forgot to mention is,
23:42
I know I tease you
23:42
a lot because we're here today,
23:46
part of the end of the year.
23:48
First segment, first segment, one summer
23:53
and you put the line July and the on me.
23:57
I think we're a function at one of us together.
24:01
And you came up to me
24:02
and he said, I'm going to announce instead of city address October 1st.
24:07
And I said, you say that I'm going to go back at the end of the year.
24:10
And I did, I did, but,
24:13
you know, mayor, I always say this, whatever media, whoever
24:16
I'm talking to when I talk about you, you are a true coach.
24:20
You encourage people or you force
24:23
people to be better.
24:26
I'd like to say I'm the same way.
24:28
Right, team?
24:30
Okay. Yeah.
24:31
They're first to give me the thumbs up
24:34
stuff.
24:35
But you you did it.
24:36
You you encouraged us.
24:38
You pushed the deadline up three months and we did it.
24:41
And so you just push the lever to constantly ask people to do better
24:45
every day.
24:46
My heart warms my heart for me.
24:49
Some of you are new.
24:50
Some of you, even though you're new to the board, you part of the project.
24:54
And so the support that you folks have given me and my team,
24:58
it's extremely grateful to you for giving us guidance when we need it,
25:03
asking us the difficult questions when we need it, keeping us honest.
25:07
So I appreciate that he thought, you know,
25:10
he thought my family, you know, it's very public, right?
25:13
They're suing us.
25:15
Oh, they've been a big loss and against us.
25:17
But it doesn't mean we don't continue to work
25:20
with each other and move things forward.
25:23
And they have been doing a phenomenal
25:25
job when you're trying to open segment one same thing.
25:28
Mayor pushed the deadline up.
25:30
They did a terrific job of getting us open, even as mayor says,
25:34
sustaining that high, availability.
25:37
Segment one. And then same thing as segment two.
25:40
The mayor pushed us over.
25:41
We need you to get this done.
25:42
And I was a little nervous that we had some hiccups in the beginning.
25:46
So I asked the mayor for a two week extension instead of October 1st.
25:50
Can we have two left over on?
25:52
Then he got to the point he thought to pull through.
25:55
You folks did your system availability demonstration in 43 days,
26:00
which is incredible, especially because we have segment one running.
26:04
Second one was easier because no one's running a train.
26:07
You could do engineering hours 24 seven.
26:09
We had to accomplish what they needed to accomplish in those hours.
26:13
That wasn't running from 7 to 4.
26:15
So they did an incredible job.
26:18
Finally, my heart when the
26:21
managers are here, can I ask you please, to stand up and be recognized?
26:27
Do you do read?
26:40
These are just some of my managers.
26:42
What I have other of my team here as a volunteer here,
26:46
not just the station, but you have to help DTS or Nick.
26:50
You're hiding over there. Another one of my managers.
26:52
And, you know, I get all the accolades.
26:54
I get all of the credit.
26:57
But honestly, I wouldn't be here today without them.
27:01
I had lunch with Anthony earlier this week, and, you know,
27:04
I want to take on more responsibilities for for more to come.
27:08
I do this question to me was more, did you have the bandwidth?
27:12
And he said, I remember you would have put in long hours.
27:15
I'd stay up till one, 2:00 in the morning looking over some graphs,
27:19
figures and numbers and, you know, start again at 5:00 in the morning.
27:23
And I was a little insulted when he said he used to come to work with bags
27:27
under your eyes.
27:27
And like you don't say that to a woman that,
27:31
oh, you didn't have bags under my eyes.
27:33
That's the answer is I do have the bandwidth.
27:36
I have the bandwidth because I have my team.
27:38
I don't work long hours anymore.
27:40
I work regular hours.
27:42
I come into the office at seven.
27:44
I leave at five six. It's fine.
27:46
I don't have to work to do a night anymore because of the team that I have.
27:50
So I'm very grateful.
27:51
Grateful to you folks, grateful to the rest of the
27:54
ohana that they couldn't be here by and helping them, watching live online.
27:58
Everything that you folks
27:59
have accomplished on segment one, segment two of what we're doing a segment three,
28:03
we are starting to change the public perception
28:07
at least once a week.
28:09
I still today someone from the public is coming up to me.
28:13
I don't know who they are.
28:14
I just thank you, Lori, for what you and your team are doing.
28:17
And again, it's all because of you folks.
28:20
I don't do this. I don't do this alone.
28:22
So thank you everyone. Thank you for being here.
28:25
And, let's get on to that transition.
28:28
Thank you.
28:38
Please welcome the director of the Department of Transportation.
28:41
Services, Roger Morton.
28:49
Oh, what a crowd.
28:50
Aloha, everybody.
28:53
Today marks another proud moment in Honolulu history
28:56
with the opening of skyline segment two, we take another important step toward
29:00
a truly integrated multimodal transport system, one that connects neighborhoods,
29:05
jobs, education and opportunity more seamlessly than ever before
29:09
with the addition of our new four new station, skyline now
29:13
includes 13 station spanning nearly 15.5 miles of track,
29:18
connecting East Couple to the Community Transit Center, the New Star,
29:22
Pearl Harbor, the Airport Lagoon Drive, and Middle Street Transit Center
29:26
finally bring skyline.
29:27
The place is filled with activity, people and jobs, making the system
29:31
more relevant, more useful, and more connected than ever before.
29:35
We often say that skyline doesn't just move people,
29:38
it connects possibilities with the extension.
29:42
That vision becomes real skyline that connects directly with the bus
29:46
and event and our future mobility options like bike share, car
29:49
share and micromobility.
29:51
This is what true multi-modal mobility
29:54
looks like a system where every mode strengthens the other.
29:58
Look around.
29:59
The busses are here, the handy vans are running and skyline is ready to roll.
30:04
Honolulu's multi-modal system isn't an idea anymore.
30:06
It's a reality.
30:08
And yes, skyline is always on time.
30:11
Skyline is already transforming how we live and move.
30:15
It's already impacting our residents and our visitors.
30:19
Take Eunice, a Hawaiian air flight attendant who lives in what will people
30:24
and now spend an hour driving to the Daniel Conroy Airport
30:28
just to reach the employee parking lot, where she has
30:31
to wait another 15 minutes for a shuttle to get to terminal one, and her job
30:36
today is you could ride.
30:37
She could ride skyline tonight to the of the station, transferred
30:41
to the route 20 and reach work in 75 minutes tomorrow.
30:46
It'll take her 25 minutes during with the during rush hour.
30:50
And that's two extra hours to spend with her family.
31:00
And then there is Max,
31:01
a young student who commutes from East Kapolei today.
31:04
His trip to Manoa takes about 90 minutes.
31:07
Tomorrow, he'll light Skyline to Lagoon Drive and transfer to the new UI,
31:12
reaching upper campus in about an hour, 20 minutes faster than before
31:17
and during the ride, he can finish his assignments or check his socials.
31:21
Because Wi-Fi is available free on the train.
31:24
And because of our partnership with you and every full time student
31:28
with the Manila, one can ride skyline and the bus at no additional cost
31:33
and add for you West US, West Ohio and Linwood Community College students.
31:38
Come see us. We've got a deal for you to
31:41
access.
31:42
Get your daughter can look forward to a skyline
31:46
that goes all the way to Manoa.
31:48
Also, speaking of the future, skyline doesn't go to Waikiki.
31:53
Yeah, but the new line extends its reach.
31:58
I call a regular visitor from Tokyo.
32:00
Currently spends more than an hour traveling from the airport to her hotel.
32:05
But the new line.
32:06
Her trip drops to just over 40 minutes on new articulated bathrooms
32:11
with extra room for the luggage skyline strengthens our visitor industry.
32:16
Every traveler who ride skyline instead of renting a car
32:20
can help ease congestion on our roads by offering a safe and secure
32:24
and reliable way to reach hotels and the tracks, we give visitors
32:29
a more sustainable way to experience our beautiful island.
32:33
Let's not forget how we got here.
32:35
Our success today is built on decades of hard
32:38
work, perseverance and partnership from countless individuals
32:42
who believe Honolulu could build a world class transit system
32:46
through the engineers, project managers and community outreach teams.
32:50
At heart and through the dedicated men and women of the Department
32:53
of Transportation Services, which I have the privilege to lead.
32:57
Mahalo.
32:57
Doing all your patience, professionalism and commitment
33:01
to safety and quality brought us to this moment.
33:04
Because of you.
33:05
Skyline is more than an engineering achievement.
33:08
It's a testament to resilience, collaboration, and local pride
33:12
through our operating partners, the men and women of
33:15
Oahu Transit Services and Hitachi Rail Honolulu.
33:19
Thank you for your dedication.
33:21
Is the Indian body is the embodiment of the spirit of aloha
33:24
and makes our system better than any other on the country
33:28
and to our political leaders, past and present,
33:31
who have had the courage to dream big and take risks for the greater good.
33:36
Today we see the fruits of your, vision
33:39
and a special mahalo to Senator Danny Noid and Mayor Frank Fossey,
33:44
whose foresight laid the foundation for a system that connects our communities,
33:49
our economy, and our future.
33:51
And mahalo plenty to our government leaders here who continue to share that dream.
33:55
The skyline moves forward
33:57
with every train that departs, every rider that steps on board.
34:01
We continue that legacy together.
34:03
We're building a city that moves with purpose, with pride, and with aloha.
34:09
Every new rider represents more than a fair.
34:12
It's cleaner air for keiki.
34:14
It's fewer cars on each one, and it's a more sustainable future for all involved.
34:19
Sigma2 is not an ending.
34:21
It's a bridge to what's next.
34:24
Each extension of skyline brings us closer to an Oahu where people can live,
34:28
work, learn, and play without being bound to a steering.
34:33
So, as the first train
34:35
of of segment to prepare to depart on its inaugural trip,
34:40
new members Sky nine is more than tracks and stations.
34:43
It's a vision, something we should all be proud of.
34:47
It is our collective promise.
34:49
Are truly honored to build a city that is connected.
34:53
Resilient and global.
34:54
Positive and mahalo doing.
34:57
Thank you very much for.