Testimony favors end to bus transfers

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

City officials say a plan to reduce bus fares and eliminate transfers would generate $2.1 million toward the $6.8 million shortfall in the bus budget.

Some bus riders say eliminating the transfers is a fair trade-off for lowering other fares, and they would just like to see the buses back on the road.

After hearing testimony from several bus drivers on the abuse of bus transfers, the City Council will consider a new bus fare structure on Monday that would eliminate the system that allows bus riders to pay a single fare and ride in any direction for two hours.

Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said bus drivers have complained that riders use the passes for longer than two hours, give them to other people or use them the next day.

"They see the abuse and they aren't able to do anything about it," she said.

Drivers testified that "they are told they have to give the benefit of the doubt to the riders," Kobayashi said.

The transfers are not an issue in contract talks between the Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, representing striking bus drivers, and O'ahu Transit Services, city officials said. But the idea has been discussed publicly as a way to generate more revenue.

The current bus transfer system was adopted in 2001 from one that allowed riders to use transfers for one hour, to one destination.

The transfers were changed to entice people to use the city's then-new "hub and spoke" system, said Paul Steffens, chief of the city's public transit division, which can make it faster to ride in an opposite direction and transfer.

Catching the bus to go shopping and using a transfer to return home is not considered abuse of the system, Steffens said.

Under the Council's latest fare proposal, the $1.75 bus fare would be lowered to $1 for regular buses and raised to $2 for express buses. With no transfers, riders could have to pay multiple fares to reach one destination.

But Kobayashi pointed out that people who ride and transfer regularly are likely to buy a monthly pass. Riders most affected would be those who use the bus sporadically, or tourists, she said.

Hawai'i Kai resident Arlene Inoue, who catches the bus between her two jobs, said she no longer buys bus passes and occasionally transfers, depending on her route. But she said the proposal "wouldn't be too bad. It would be a fair trade-off."

Kailua resident Bob Bourke, who catches the bus to work downtown, said, "I think lowering the bus rate for riders is a step in the right direction." He added that the transfers were "a hassle to deal with" and it was a good idea to get rid of them.

But he had doubts about whether the changes would raise enough money. "It seems to me that most people who do transfer a lot will have a bus pass," he said.

Natara Stuber of Kalihi said transfers are one area where the bus is losing money, so it would not be a bad idea to get rid of them.

She just wants to see an end to the strike. "As long as they have the buses ... I'd be grateful," she said. "Having to hassle my friends for rides or having my boss to pick me up is weird."

Reach Treena Shapiro at 525-8070 or tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.