Kapolei bus center opens Tuesday
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
For two years, Mel Uesato has caught the CountryExpress! five days a week from Kapolei to Chinatown, where he works.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
But starting Tuesday, his morning wait for the bus will change as the city launches the first major change to its bus service in decades.
Chad Thurman of Fleet Street Graphics finishes work on signs for kiosks at the Kapolei Transit Center, which will be dedicated today. The facility is central to a system that coordinates neighborhood buses with express runs into town.
That's when the $1.4 million Kapolei Transit Center will open, the first such facility in the city's new hub-and-spoke bus route system that joins neighborhood circulator lines with express service into town. The city will dedicate the center at noon today.
The center will hold as many as nine buses at a time and has a waiting area that includes restrooms, drinking fountains, a covered shelter and directional charts indicating bus locations by route.
Under the city's hub-and-spoke system, some buses will circulate in the neighborhood while others will travel to town. That means there will be more buses coming through the transit center, reducing waiting time and creating more options for riders who won't have to wait for buses to return from town.
"I haven't gone in (the center) yet, but it looks nice," said Uesato, 51, who has been commuting by bus for more than 20 years. "We'll just wait and see."
The center is considered the model for transit facilities being planned in other outlying areas such as Wahiawa and the North Shore, city officials said.
• What: Kapolei Transit Center • Where: 900 Kamokila Blvd. • Dedication: Noon today, with entertainment by the Royal Hawaiian Band • Service: First day of operations at the center will be Tuesday • Buses: CountryExpress! Route C (Honolulu, Kapolei, Makaha); Routes 40/40A (Honolulu-Makaha); Route 41 (Kapolei-'Ewa Beach); and Shuttle Routes 411, 412, 413 and 414 (Makakilo Heights, Panana Street, Campbell Industrial Park, Makakilo/Palahi'a/Kapolei)
The city is in the planning and design phases of similar transit centers in Wai'anae, 'Ewa Beach, Waipahu and Mililani. Eventually the hope is to convert all bus routes to a hub-and-spoke system.
Center's routes
"It's a matter of giving people a modernized service and modernized waiting areas," said Cheryl Soon, city transportation services director.
The new system should not affect express services to and from town, she said.
The city is also upgrading the stop at Sinclair Circle at the University of Hawai'i, the end of the line for CityExpress Route A. That project, including the construction of three large bus shelters and new walkways, should be completed and opened in a few weeks, Soon said.
Kapolei was selected as one of the first sites for a new transit center because of the community's rapid growth, which has created a need for a more centralized, modern system, Soon said.
And Kapolei bus commuters are excited about the beginning of the streamlined operation on Tuesday.
"I think what this says is that we're finally being taken seriously," said Maeda Timson, Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board chairwoman, who rides the bus on occasion. "Our population justifies the services we are finally getting. ...
"This is a great way to spend our tax dollars. It's a wonderful thing."
Reach Catherine E. Toth at 535-8103 or ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.
