Every time I see a train it's empty.

KSSK this morning said the auditor who did the 2023 rider audit was wrong when they said ridership is down 70%. It's only down 40%.

So regardless of the reduction in riders, why are we paying this auditor?  I get there is some room for error, but not 70 down to 40% type of error.

The numbers from that audit appear to be from Skyline's own ridership reports comparing the month of July 2023 to December 2023.

July 2023 -- 151,600
Dec 2023 --   85,460

Browsing the rider reports from July 2023 - Feb 2025, few months broke 100K.  On average, there have been 97,356 riders per month if you include July 2023.

Since July 2023 was an outlier at around 50% more than any other month, removing that from the average makes sense. 
That leaves an average ridership = 94,644/month.

Any comparisons between July 2023 (first full month of operation) with ANY other month is not informative.  Looking at the trend from start to present day makes more sense.

As I said before, percentages are used when trying to mask the actual raw data in order to make a point.  The auditor compounded the issue by making a mistake in their math, which drew more scrutiny than I think they wanted.

https://www8.honolulu.gov/dts/skyline-ridership/

Here's a chart I made of ALL the monthly ridership totals:

Except for the month of July and maybe August, comparing each month to the same month in the previous year, ridership seems to be either the same or slightly higher. 

Every time I see a train it's empty.

Me too.  And I'm traveling during peak traffic hours when people are going to or from work and school.

Except for the month of July and maybe August, comparing each month to the same month in the previous year, ridership seems to be either the same or slightly higher.

Different picture than comparing a seemingly cherry-picked highest and lowest month to show a 40% drop -- and even then they couldn't do the math correctly.

Math is easy.  Knowing how to calculate a percentage takes smartness!!