The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) announced today the Hawaiian names of the nine rail stations on the ewa end of the rail system as recommended by its Hawaiian Station Naming Working Group.
The recommended names are:
- Kualaka‘i (Location: Kroc Center)
- Keone‘ae (Location: UH West Oahu)
- Honouliuli (Location: Ho‘opili)
- Hō‘ae‘ae (Location: Waipahu, West Loch)
- Pouhala (Location: Waipahu Transit Center)
- Hālaulani (Location: Leeward CC)
- Waiawa (Location: Pearl Highlands)
- Pu‘uloa (Location: Pearlridge)
- Hālawa (Location: Aloha Stadium)
“These Hawaiian names for our stations help anchor the rail project in the root culture of our island,” said HART Executive Director and CEO Andrew Robbins. “HART extends a warm mahalo to the members of the working group for their dedication to this effort.”
Members of the working group used diverse community knowledge, oral accounts and written history to come up with the names, and to bring back place names and significant sites in Hawaiian culture.
“We embrace and shed light on the histories and the mo‘olelo of the ahupua‘a by giving these stations their Hawaiian names,” said Hawaiian Station Naming Working Group chairperson Mahealani Cypher.
The working group invites the public to contribute its stories, historic facts and knowledge of significant events about the station names over the next month. After 30 days, the group will meet to consider the public comments before finalizing the names and presenting them to the HART Board of Directors for review and adoption.
The Hawaiian rail station names are posted on the HART project website at www.honolulutransit.org.