Changes designed to clarify buses’ final destinations

Question: On Friday evening, Aug. 19, TheBus dropped off four passengers on Route 23 at Sea Life Park and left them stranded to get to Waimanalo. The driver said it was a holiday schedule and this was his last stop. He said there might be another bus at 7:22 p.m., but he wasn’t sure. My wife was there until 7:50 p.m., when a neighbor picked her up. No other bus had come after she was dropped off at 7:20 p.m. She works at Kahala Mall and takes that route home every night. Never has she been dumped there and told that she’ll have to walk home. If the driver had warned the passengers, she could have taken an alternative route. She has taken the bus before on holidays, and it always becomes 57 at Sea Life Park to extend through Waimanalo to Ala Moana. Even the published schedule said that the 57 (which the 23 becomes at Sea Life Park) left at 7:22 p.m. When I called TheBus’ office, I was told that I would be transferred to customer service, then unceremoniously dumped after being told the office was closed. How can this happen?

Answer: Because of what happened, Oahu Transit Services will make changes both to the terminating stop on state holidays as well as to route signs. However, OTS officials say the holiday schedule was publicized in advance of the Aug. 19 Admission Day holiday and that Route 23 buses normally terminate at Sea Life Park on state holidays.

“We apologize for the hardship (your wife) experienced on Admission Day,” said OTS spokeswoman Michelle Kennedy. “It appears that (she) may not have realized that on Admission Day the buses run on a state holiday schedule.”

She said TheBus holidays are printed on all bus timetables, on TheBus’ website and on the main page of OTS’ website. The city also issued a news release to all news media on Aug. 16 about TheBus’ state holiday schedule, she said.

Kennedy said it is not true that all Route 23 buses become Route 57 buses and travel beyond Sea Life Park to Kailua.

Route 23 has been terminating at Sea Life Park on state holidays, normally around 6:56 p.m., since June 2008, and the destination sign on the bus stated the end location was Sea Life Park, she said.

The “trailing bus” normally picks up passengers at 7:22 p.m. “Unfortunately, due to heavy traffic conditions, the trailing bus was very late” that holiday, Kennedy said.

That all said, as a result of what was deemed an “unfortunate incident,” OTS has made a change to the Bus 23 route when it is on a holiday schedule.

“This bus trip, which terminates at Sea Life Park and goes out of service, will instead terminate in Kalama Valley, and the destination sign will clearly state ‘Kalama Valley’ as the end location,” Kennedy said. “This will make the rider aware that this bus will definitely not continue on to Kailua.”

She said OTS also is working to make the destination sign “more descriptive.”

“In the future the sign will clearly state when the bus will continue to a location beyond the Sea Life Park terminus,” Kennedy said. “In doing this the riders will know which buses will continue on to serve the Windward coast. We hope these changes will alleviate any problems on future state holidays.”

MAHALO

To the Freeway Service Patrol and driver Sio Tufele. My car died in the Aiea/Pearl City area in rush-hour traffic on Monday, Aug. 15. In six lanes of traffic and with people honking and staring, you don’t have a clue what to do! In less than five minutes, Mr. Tufele was there and towed me off to the shoulder. Then, he told me he had to find a safer place and towed me to Blaisdell Park in Pearl City. I was the third car that he had helped that afternoon, and there was one more! The Freeway Service Patrol is a wonderful service. Thank you, Sio, for being my angel.

— Pixie S. Bickel, Mililani