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After 16 years of planning and construction, the first 11 miles of the Honolulu Rail System is set to open on June 30.

The first phase of opening the rail begins in Kapolei and extends to the Aloha Stadium, with nine stations along the initial route.

Riding the entire 11 miles will take about 21 minutes.

Filipino-American Tyler dos Santos-Tam is the chairman of the Honolulu City Council's transportation committee.

"People are finally going to have the chance to ride it," he said, "to get out of that traffic that everyone sits in."

The rail has been going through trail runs since last fall and finally reached a 98.5% success rate.

"It's just easier for me to get to places since I don't drive yet," said Oahu resident Rovielyn Piso. "It's another way to get to places more efficiently than the bus."

But some believe the timeline of the rail's completion took too long.

"It's such an outrage to wait," said Samuel Girangaya. "Almost like 10 years, just for a portion of it to be open to the public."

He added: "We've seen so many trial runs run back and forth throughout a couple of years back. So I think it's kind of outrageous."

The public is invited to ride for free over the July 4 Independence Day weekend.

Its first rail ride with passengers will leave the Kapolei Station at 2 p.m. on June 30, with the last stop at the Halawa Station by the Aloha Stadium.