TheBus fare card program scrapped
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser Staff Writer
TheBus smart-card program — which allows bus riders to pay their fare with a debit-like card — has been canceled after costing Honolulu $1.1 million.
Almost all of Honolulu's 525 buses were equipped for smart cards, which carry an embedded microchip and are "loaded" with funds that are debited with each use.
The trial program, which began in December, had been plagued with problems, including low participation.
TheBus smart card
The program never expanded beyond 1,611 bus riders who were employees of the city and 18 local companies that debited funds for the card from employee paychecks, said Ed Hirata, city Department of Transportation Services director. That represents less than 1 percent of the city's 208,000 daily bus riders.
The cancellation is the latest by the Hannemann administration, which has also terminated:
• A satellite tracking system used on parks vehicles that cost $1.5 million;
• Several planned projects, including five canoe halau that would have cost a total of more than $1 million;
• 66 design contracts that would have cost $6.9 million.
The bus card was supposed to speed service, provide planners with new transit data and keep bus users from fumbling at the door digging up cash for a fare.
Instead, card-reading equipment on many of the buses didn't work and the program was behind schedule, Hirata said. The city canceled the contract with Royal Contracting May 16 and will transfer all credit from the smart-card holders toward a monthly bus pass for July, he said.
A one-way bus fare costs $2.
The cards allowed users to buy a specific number of rides, whereas a bus pass allows unlimited rides each month for $40.
"We canceled the program because there are no funds budgeted in this fiscal year starting July 1 to continue the project," Hirata said. "It was a matter of looking at our priorities and this one didn't make the cut."
Scrapping the program doesn't mean the city is giving up hope of establishing a similar program down the road, but it will be one that will work better, he said.
"The long-range objective is to go to some kind of smart card system, but it will just take us longer to get there. It's not something we've pioneered."
Teri Law, a Waikiki bus rider, said she was sorry to see the program canceled. She likes the idea of not having to scrounge up $2 every time she wanted to catch a bus, but she doesn't ride the bus often enough to justify spending $40 a month on a bus pass.
"It would have been perfect for me," Law said while sitting at a bus stop in front of Kahala Mall yesterday. "I could have put on there enough to cover my monthly bus riding costs while I wait until I'm old enough to qualify for a senior citizen bus pass.
"For me, the program would have been beneficial."
One of the biggest benefits to the smart-card program was that if a card was lost or stolen it could be replaced at a minimal cost, unlike the paper bus passes, which are not replaceable.
The city had hoped to have the cards available for purchase at satellite city halls, convenience and grocery stores through credit card transactions and from automated machines. The program is used in Singapore and Hong Kong, and in European and Australian cities.
Many riders such as Gertud Munker of Kailua, however, felt there was very little incentive to trade in her monthly bus pass for the smart card. The bus pass is just too easy to use, she said while waiting for the bus on Wai'alae Avenue in Kaimuki.
"It's stupid," Munker said. "It takes a long time to read the card. I've been riding the bus for 20 years. I like the system, so why change it? I could have figured out in one minute that it wasn't going to work, without spending $1.1 million."
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
