EDITOR’S NOTE: The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is featuring each of the nine Skyline rail stations and surrounding communities stretching 11 miles from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. The series started Sunday and continues through Thursday. Passengers will begin riding Skyline on Friday.

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Greater Ewa Beach residents have one of Oahu’s most hellish commutes to and from town, but there is a light at the end of the figurative congested traffic tunnel near the mauka end of Fort Weaver Road.

There, less than a half-mile from Fort Weaver Road on Farrington Highway, lies the city’s Ho‘ae‘ae rail station.

This station between Ho‘opili and Waipahu is expected to serve most Ewa Beach residents largely through TheBus and drop-and-ride connections, according to the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.

Ho‘ae‘ae, also known as the West Loch station, sits near the top of Fort Weaver Road, a roughly 6-mile-long artery providing a main east-west thoroughfare for residents in communities that include West Loch Estates, Ewa Villages, Ewa by Gentry, Ocean Pointe, Hoakalei, Ewa Beach and Iroquois Point.

For those hopping on the Skyline train, a ride from Ho‘ae‘ae station will take 30 minutes to get Downtown, the next-to-last station, or 31 minutes to the last station in Kakaako if those stations are built and open as planned in 2031.

Initial interim service will run only between East Kapolei and Aloha Stadium, severely limiting the usefulness of the system for Ewa Beach area residents.

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Noah Berk, an Ewa by Gentry resident, contemplated riding rail about three years ago when the initial segment had been expected to start running. But he said at the time that he didn’t envision using the system because he was used to an hour-long morning commute to Sand Island that typically began at 5:45 a.m.

Royal Kunia resident Rogge Cuarisma said in mid-June that he would probably use the initial Skyline segment occasionally to visit Pearlridge Center, a four-stop ride taking 10 minutes, but it wouldn’t be useful for him to get to work in town.

HART has not projected station use for the initial service segment. The agency projected in 2021 that the Ho‘ae‘ae station will see about 4,690 daily boardings, the fourth-highest use among 19 stations, when the full 19-mile rail line is operating.

The Ho‘ae‘ae station features a 21-stall park-and-ride lot and a four-bay bus depot next to one of the station’s entrances. City officials expect TheBus service to the station will largely draw commuters from the greater Ewa Beach community and other places including Royal Kunia and Village Park.

A second entrance on the mauka side of Farrington Highway is more situated for pedestrians and connects to a Don Quijote store parking lot.

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Generally, the Ho‘ae‘ae station borders strip-center retail complexes on the mauka side and a more than 50-acre industrial neighborhood on the makai side stretching to Pearl Harbor.

City planners envision both areas being converted in the coming decades to medium- and high-density residential communities mixed with businesses and a new pedestrian-oriented “main street” running to the edge of the harbor from the station.

Sam Carnaggio, a rail industry veteran who was HART project director for several years previously, said rail promotes the transition of industrial areas to other uses.

“I’ve seen it all up and down the East Coast,” he said during a Ho‘ae‘ae station visit a few years ago. “The whole area grows up.”

One small change in 2021 perhaps heralding bigger things to come was a multimillion-dollar renovation of what had been a nondescript and poorly maintained strip mall near the station and immediately Ewa of Don Quijote.

The property owner, a Robinson family trust, rebranded the roughly 20-tenant complex as The Shops at West Loch Station and attracted several new tenants under the notion they would be at “ground zero” in an area being gentrified with transit-oriented development.

At least a couple of tenants, Rainbow Drive-In and Manny’s Bake Shop, ceased operating since the center’s rebranding, and the large majority of tenants are still awaiting the promoted benefits of rail after Skyline service delays.

“I’m expecting more customer base,” said Roger Rivera on a recent day at the counter of snack shop Rajah Dat, which he opened in late 2021 at The Shops at West Loch Station because of its proximity to the rail station.

The retail center’s owner also owns the land under the Don Quijote store, which is slated to close in 2024 perhaps to make way for more redevelopment. A Robinson trust representative could not be reached for comment about future plans for the site.

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• Click here to view previous rail coverage.

Ho‘ae‘ae (To make soft or fine). Ho‘ae‘ae is an ahupuaa situated between Honouliuli and Waikele.This ahupuaa had a moderate-size area of terraces watered by springs inland of West Loch and Pearl Harbor. A landmark of the area is Huliwai Gulch.