Editorial: Bus links critical to opening of rail

It’s just four months away, hard as that is to believe.

And Honolulu wants to believe what Mayor Rick Blangiardi and his transit team promise for the long-stalled rail project — that it will start becoming useful in July. That’s when the city Department of Transportation Services is expected to begin operations of the first half of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation elevated rail system.

While HART continues work on the alignment through the Middle Street-Dillingham Boulevard corridor, the completed link from East Kapolei to the Aloha Stadium station will take riders to a point that, as it now exists, is not a desirable ending point. The eventual new stadium that would be an attractive stop is still years away.

At a news conference following the mayor’s State of the City address on Tuesday, Roger Morton, DTS director, said he’d be happy with an initial daily ridership of 12,000-15,000 in the rail’s first segment.

Truth be told, it’s going to require a lot of work between now and opening day to build even to that level, reeducating the public about their transit options. Almost everyone would love to ride the train as a novelty, but few would give up their car commute for something that won’t take them where they need to go.

Unless it would.

What the city is pledging to do is to make even an incomplete rail system reasonably functional, by forging connections to final destinations with dedicated bus routes. From the Halawa temporary terminus, Morton said, bus services would get the rider to downtown.

The new bus routes would be structured to have a departure from rail stops every 10 minutes, about as frequently as the trains run, he said.

That’s important, but so is the efficiency of that bus ride itself. An express route, avoiding as much of the urban traffic congestion as possible, would be crucial in convincing the car commuter that going car-less can work.

There should be circuits to and from key points downtown and other target employment or school destinations, including Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, community colleges and the University of Hawaii Manoa campus. Kamaaina residents haven’t forgotten that UH-Manoa had been envisioned originally as the end point of the rail system, and smoothing the way there still should remain as a focus in planning.

The city also has a unified rail-bus fare structure in its sights, and with the projected $80 monthly rate and further discounts for seniors, youth and low-income riders, this is the right way to go.

But like so many of what the mayor described as the city’s “wicked problems,” there is real urgency to make progress quickly on rail and the associated traffic issues. It’s plainly time to hit the accelerator on that.

The DTS website has a centerpiece graphic asking, “Do you want to be a part of Honolulu’s Rail Operations and Maintenance Team? Are you interested in operating the first driverless rail system in the United States? Experienced in directing large-scale projects and contracts? A current transit planner or engineer?”

The display links not to a progress report but to the city’s job application portal. Oahu residents who support rail have to hope the recruitment is further along at this point.

It is encouraging to see the administration’s drive to begin long-delayed operations and to tie it in with better-timed signals and more traffic cameras to improve traffic flow and safety.

However, future riders do need to get more information about operations and even have some input in the final route planning for buses. The train is pulling into the station, and Honolulu can’t afford to be any later with this launch.