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Interim head of Big Island public transit proposes a return to fare-free system

Hele-On Bus

Hawaiʻi County has ambitious goals for its Hele-On public transit system: a carbon-neutral bus fleet, the construction of four new transit hubs, and potentially a return to free fares for all riders. But the recent reality has been more challenging.

The Hele-On system has been plagued over the past few years with aging buses, reports of underserved routes, and high leadership turnover. But the system’s reputation has not deterred John Andoh. He took over the reins as the interim Mass Transit Administrator back in August.

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THE CONVERSATION: How many people took the bus this year?

JOHN ANDOH: At the present time, we don't have those statistics. We are actually inputting the ridership data into our database. But I can tell you last fiscal year, the system closed out at about 291,000 passenger trips between paratransit, bus, and taxi. Pre-pandemic, I believe that was about 390,000. So ridership has been declining.

In 2019, the average rider for a one-way fare paid about $2, but the county was paying about $11.77 per rider. Do we have any updated numbers on what the county is paying per rider, either from 2021 or 2020?

Numbers have not been released by The National Transit Database just yet. I'm waiting for those figures to come.

Editor's note: After the interview with The Conversation, Andoh shared more information about the fiscal year 2020 report. The overall operational expense was $13,361,380, while the overall revenue from passenger fares was $908,742 from 560,889 trips. The county subsidy per passenger, per ride, was $7.28, taking into account a decline in ridership compared to 2019, Andoh said.

Is the county paying more per rider than they were in 2019?

It all depends on how much expenses the county incurred. And then you compare that against the revenues that were generated from the passengers. And FTA is a bit behind in releasing those numbers just because of the pandemic — because normally those numbers are out by now.

What progress has been made on getting more of the county's fleet of buses operational?

Now we have approximately 30 buses that are operational. Our goal is to get to 49. And our mechanics are working hard in bringing more of the buses up. Thanks to a donation from the City and County of Honolulu, that helped us in getting some additional operable buses. It is the desire to replace the entire fleet by 2024. We have enough grants to purchase 38 buses. And we have four buses that will be delivered next year, along with three hydrogen buses that will also be delivered. So we're well on our way in replacing the fleet and having a completely brand new fleet for our passengers to enjoy. Once we have the brand new fleet, then the cost of paying our contractor in providing vehicles would be eliminated.

Can you discuss the unique challenges of attempting to connect the Big Island's spread-out communities?

It is a distance between the communities, that just makes it very challenging. Comparable to the other islands, we can get to that mileage threshold on our vehicles much quicker than the other islands because of the number of hours and miles that these buses are traveling a day. A good example, our Route 1 that goes from Hilo to Kailua-Kona via the Hamakua Coast — that route in itself takes 3.5 hours one way, so that bus is basically in service for 7 hours when it when it's all said and done. Another route that we have that goes from Pahala to the south Kohala resorts, that's another route that takes about 3 hours and 45 minutes, one way, and that route also puts a lot of miles on as well. So we want to make sure that as we get the new fleet of the future, that we're buying the appropriate buses that can handle our various terrains from flat land to high mountain tops like going over the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, as a perfect example, or down into the gulches along the Hamakua Coast.

Can you articulate what a fare-free transit system means and how it would help Hawaiʻi Island?

With public transit, right now, the present people that are using the transit system are low income, and they have to live dollar for dollar daily. And if we can remove that barrier of the cost of transportation, which is a large cost to many low-income families, and then allow them to put that cost back into other means that they may require such as shopping, medical appointments, or whatnot — then they would make more trips on the public transit system, and therefore be able to help contribute more to our overall economy. I see transit as an equity social issue. And I think of it like the library — if the library can be free, free to all and we're providing a highly valuable benefit to the community by educating those that are reading, we should think of transit in the same manner.

How do you see the system overcoming financial, reputation and ridership problems?

The transit system has history to show that it was in the 300,000 passenger trip range in the early 2000s. When the system went fare-free from 2005 to 2013, ridership increased to 1.2 million passenger trips. The system was building at that time, new buses were coming online during that period and people were able to depend and rely on the transit system and this was solely using general funds and highway funds at the time. We have a golden opportunity to recreate that. We are funded through the general excise tax through 2030 solely for the purposes of rebuilding this mass transit system and making it a true economic driver. We have the opportunity to build relationships and partnerships with businesses, community groups, so that we can promote our services to be what our services should be. We have an opportunity to use the general excise tax funds to get us new buses combined with our federal funds, build bus stops, and build all the necessary elements to show that we have a comprehensive transit system that can be, as I mentioned earlier, that congestion buster. And I think by building all those elements and demonstrating reliability and consistency, people will start to realize that using public transit will be a more effective means versus having to drive from point A to point B in a single-occupant vehicle.

This interview aired on The Conversation on Dec. 14, 2021. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.

Updated: December 17, 2021 at 3:10 PM HST
Added new information from John Andoh about the fiscal year 2020.
Savannah Harriman-Pote is the energy and climate change reporter. She is also the lead producer of HPR's "This Is Our Hawaiʻi" podcast. Contact her at sharrimanpote@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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