The Lahaina Kaanapali Railroad, The "Sugar Cane Train"

The Lahaina Kaanapali Railroad, better known as the Sugar Cane Train, is helping to keep alive, bring back, and revitalize Hawaii's rich railroading history. The little tourist line, located on the Island of Maui, has been in operation since 1969 when the Sugar Cane Train was started that year by A.W. "Mac" McKelvy. As when it was started the Lahaina, Kaanapali & Pacific Railroad (as it is officially known) operates over six miles of narrow-gauge railroad which connects Lahaina to Puukolii. While the LK&P is certainly no Strasburg or Napa Valley Wine Train in the many and/or luxurious services/trains offered it still is a unique and interesting operation in a tropical setting that, interestingly enough, was once teaming with railroads (which will learn about while on your trip).

To give you a brief history of Hawaii's railroading past, while the islands have never had a large railroading presence they were served by a number of common-carrier systems over the years, including dozens of private sugar plantation railroads. Today, the State of Hawaii has no operating freight or passenger railroads and its only functioning rail services are tourist lines (although plans are in the works for a small commuter rail system to be built).

Hawaii's railroading beginnings are often credited to the Island of Kauai, whose first opened in 1881 on three miles of narrow-gauge track at the Kilauea Plantation to haul sugar cane. By 1915 the island boasted over 200 miles of track, all of which served several sugar plantations on the island, although by the 1950s most of the island’s railroads were abandoned. Today, Kauai once again has an operating railroad, the 2.5-mile Kauai Plantation Railway, a tourist line that operates seven days a week.

As for the Lahaina Kaanapali Railroad itself, its line was another of the many plantation railroads found on the islands serving the Pioneer Mill located in Lahaina through the first half of the 20th century when the mill switched its mode of transportation to trucks (which were much more versatile and cheaper to operate than railroads). In its nearly 40 years of operation now the Sugar Cane Train has become a popular tourist destination and has even spurred the upstart of other tourist lines on the islands which help to tell the state’s railroading history (they include the Hawaiian Railway, Kauai Plantation Railway, and the Pineapple Express).

While I know most folks go to Hawaii for the beaches and the sun, if you have a chance you may also want to either visit one of the state’s few remaining tourist railroads, like the Lahaina Kaanapali Railroad, or the Hawaiian Railway Society to get a glimpse at what railroading was once like in the Aloha State.