Oahu Transit Services

TheBus on Oʻahu made rides free for a whole week in August. So how did we do? The numbers are in and the city says ridership was better than expected.

State and county transportation agencies will receive more than $55 million in federal money to buy clean energy buses and improve bus facilities.

Prepare yourself. If you are on the road on Oʻahu next week, expect delays as 50,000 more motorists hit the road. Jon Nouchi, deputy transportation services director for the City and County of Honolulu, rode TheBus to his interview with The Conversation and shared tips for commuters.

Riders will need to have HOLO cards to participate, which is how the city will evaluate the program. Free fares will last from Aug. 22 to Aug. 26, which coincides with the return of students to University of Hawai‘i campuses, back-to-school jam, and O‘ahu private schools.

Federal law enforcement agencies are still investigating the recent cyberattack on Oʻahu Transit Services, which operates TheBus and TheHandi-Van. Matthew Chapman, a professor at the University of Hawaiʻi - West Oʻahu, said the intent or motivation behind the attack was not clear. The Conversation's Savannah Harriman-Pote has more.

Honolulu’s HOLO card bus fare system is running normally once again. As HPR’s Scott Kim reports, the city stopped HOLO card operations last week, after a cyberattack hit Oʻahu Transit Services, the operator of TheBus and TheHandi-Van.

The Oʻahu Transit Services network is slowly coming back online after a cyberattack forced it to shut down its mobile system a week ago. Honolulu Transportation Services Director Roger Morton says full services, such as the DaBus tracking phone app and the HandiVan’s mobile data terminal, should be back up in a matter of days.

Oʻahu Transit Services, which operates TheBus and TheHandi-Van, quietly put its employee COVID-19 vaccine mandate on pause last month. Human Resources Director Tamara Addison said the agency was waiting for the Biden administration to publish its new guidelines on vaccine requirements.

On today's call-in show, we're taking your questions about the rollout of vaccine and testing mandates across the state. Honolulu labor attorney Jeffrey Harris walks us through the legality of requiring vaccinations for employees and patrons, and we go in-depth with Tamara Addison of Oahu Transit Services about their effort to get transit workers vaccinated before the deadline.