2 new bus routes planned to augment rail line

Among the new initiatives in Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s $2.9 billion operating budget are two new bus routes aimed at connecting riders of the city’s new rail system with their final destinations.

The Honolulu Authority for Rail Transportation insists it will be able to complete the 11-mile East Kapolei-to-Aloha Stadium first segment of the $9.2 billion project in time for it to begin operations in December.

City Transportation Serv­ices Director Wes Frysztacki said Tuesday that the city will spend $2.9 million on a contract for a new bus route that will run from Pearlridge to Ala Moana Center, the planned final stop of the full, 20-mile rail line. BBesides picking up and dropping off passengers at Aloha Stadium, there would be stops at Chinatown and downtown Honolulu — all of them also planned stops for the transit line when it’s completed, now tentatively scheduled to happen at the end of 2025.

“This is going to be for a particular bus route that will make the rail operations itself functional,” Frysztacki said, acknowledging that very few passengers ride from East Kapolei to the stadium. “So we’re going to have at Aloha Stadium a bus that will be waiting for every train to arrive. As people get off the train, they’ll be able to go on that bus. … That bus will go into downtown and to Aloha Stadium.”

The route would begin in December to coincide with the kickoff of rail.

An additional $3.1 million would be used to set up a similar bus route on the western end of the project. The route would run from the University of Hawaii- West Oahu station through major stops in Kapolei, including the Ka Makana Alii shopping mall and ending at Kapolei Commons on the western end of the Second City.

The East Kapolei-to-Kapolei Commons segment is not part of the first 20-mile segment, but is the identified route for the train in a future western phase. “It will connect into Kapolei and West Kapolei,” Frysztacki said. “And again, the same concept. The frequency of service would be every 10 minutes. That’s the same frequency of service that’s on the rail system. So as the train comes in, the bus will be waiting, and people will go down the escalator and get on board the bus.”

Rail operations comprise a large chunk of the new items in the operating budget proposal, which overall is about 5% more than the current fiscal year’s budget. The budget calls for $71 million to be used to operate and maintain the train during its first six months.

That figure includes $26 million that will go toward a $918 million, 13-year contract to Hitachi Rail International to operate and maintain the new transit line. The rest of the money will go toward items not covered by the Hitachi contract, including the new routes, safety railings, the hiring of 23 new DTS positions, electricity costs, guideway maintenance, security, inspection services and overflow parking.

Caldwell’s budget package, submitted to the City Council late Monday, calls for no property tax rate increases on existing property categories, although it does propose a new category for about 2,000 homeowners who apply for and get bed-and-breakfast permits from the city in October. The bed-and-breakfast owners would pay $6.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

City officials said they did not include any revenue from the new B&B category in next year’s budget because there are too many uncertainties — including how many will be operating next year — to make a forecast.

The budget calls for the addition of 101 full-time positions in the Honolulu Police Department, 85 of them sworn-officer jobs that will patrol the streets, Police Chief Susan Ballard said. There’s no funding attached in the coming year’s budget for 85 new sworn positions, however.

That’s because HPD is still is trying to tackle a shortage of about 250 officers, the chief said. “We realize it would be fiscally irresponsible for us to ask for money for these positions when we still need to fill vacant positions we already have,” Ballard said. Approving the new unfunded positions now will make it quicker and easier for HPD to fill them when the department is ready to ramp up, she said.

Factoring in retirements and resignations, “it’ll probably take us until about 2023 to fill the current 250 or so odd vacancies that we have,” Ballard said. HPD has accelerated its hiring process, adding a fourth recruit class each year and roughly doubling the size of each class to 50-60 recruits, she said.