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It’s hard to believe it was only a year ago that my then-6-year-old son and I hopped on the Skyline rail at Aloha Stadium on the week it first opened to the public.

The ride — now $3 per trip — was free and folks lined up to experience the much-anticipated, multibillion-dollar fixed-rail system we’ve been criticizing, complaining about, funding and scheduling commutes around for over a decade ago.

More than 70,000 people rode Skyline between opening day (June 30) and July 4, 2023. It was a novelty. It was different. It was free.

But on the first day of regular service a year ago, ridership dropped to 3,276 — and, , the number of daily riders hasn’t fluctuated much a year later.

Am I surprised? Only that the ridership numbers are as high as they are.

When we rode it a year ago, I wondered who would ever take this route. The full, 11-mile stretch from Halawa to East Kapolei has just nine stations, without much built in or around them right now.

And there aren’t too many points of interest along the route, either. The large outdoor mall Ka Makana Alii is about 2 miles from Kualakai East Kapolei station (not worth the walk, considering the thousands of free parking stalls at the mall) and Pearlridge Center is a hot, half-mile walk from Kalauao Pearlridge station.

The rail seems to make the most sense for UH West Oahu and Leeward Community College commuters, as Keoneae and Halaulani stations are within walking distance from campus, respectively.

There’s also been a bump on Wednesdays when Aloha Stadium hosts the swap meet. But who really knows how long the swap meet will continue, considering the stadium closed in 2020 and the reopening of a new entertainment district appears to be decades away.

There’s such a huge need for a viable solution to alleviate the traffic woes of Westside commuters. One solution was designating Kapolei as Oahu’s Second City in 1977. The goal was to reduce growing congestion on roadways as more homes were slated to be built on the central plains.

The building of homes did happen — Kapolei is still largely a residential community — but despite the relocation of government offices and family court there, it never really lived up to its Second City reputation. People still commute to town, and roadways are even more congested now.

It just seems like bad timing for Skyline.

The second segment, which is scheduled to open in 2025, should help. It connects the existing route through the Makalapa Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam station to a stop at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, which will likely (hopefully) increase ridership. The third segment goes to downtown and Kakaako, but that won’t be done until at least 2031.

I really hope this will help Westside commuters. But riding a fixed rail takes a paradigm shift, in my opinion. It’s hard for many of us — especially parents — to ditch our cars and ride public transportation. We have kids to drop off and pick up, to shuttle to piano classes and dentist appointments and soccer practices. We have Costco trips to make — and though you can bring luggage onto Skyline, I doubt huge crates of bulk-size laundry detergent and toilet paper was what the city had in mind.

I’m a longtime bus rider, from the time I was in elementary school, through college and up until the pandemic, when I had to go into our office downtown every day. But I live close enough to walk to work, so catching the bus was convenient for me. Now, with my son and his busy schedule, it’s a bit more complicated.

Still, I support public transportation. It’s what all urban areas need. I lived in Chicago and rode the L (elevated rapid transit) every day. And even though I don’t live along the current or proposed Skyline route, I don’t mind paying taxes to support it.

Only if it works — and people use it.

It’s only been a year and, as the pandemic has taught us, anything can happen. I’ll hold out hope that Skyline will turn out to be the solution it was intended to be.

What other choice do we have?