Bus woes escalate: Almost half the Hele-On bus fleet broken down

The wheels on the bus aren’t going round and round for almost half of the Hele-On fleet.

The county bus system is struggling to provide service with 25 of its fleet of 55 buses out of commission because they need major repairs. In the meantime, the system is running on a patchwork of county buses and rental vehicles from Polynesian Adventure Tours, with which the county also has a contract for drivers.

The system, called “absolutely deplorable” by a former driver, is so bad, in fact, that a County Council member is recommending an audit. Hilo Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy said the cash-handling system gives her “heartburn,” and she had other concerns as well.

One problem with using the tour company’s buses, Kona bus riders are quickly learning, is the tour company needs the buses on Wednesdays, when the weekly Norwegian Cruise Lines ship comes to town. The county has canceled the intra-Kona bus route on Wednesdays because of the shortage.

Mass Transit Administrator Tiffany Kai said the county is doing the best it can with its limited buses. She told the County Council Finance Committee last week the agency is working to get more buses in service. Kai did not return a follow-up call and email Wednesday or Thursday.

The City and County of Honolulu will soon be sending five of its retired buses to the county, and five engines ordered for some of the current fleet have recently arrived, she said. The county tries to buy one new bus, priced from $525,000 to $600,000, a year.

There are five mechanics, but Mass Transit has also tapped into expertise from the Department of Pubic Works, and even students at Hawaii Community College are helping, she said.

That didn’t satisfy council members looking at the agency’s $13.8 million budget, which is projected to rise 6 percent next year. Federal grants account for just $1.2 million of the budget, and with fares accounting for $960,000, the county pays an average $11.77 per rider. Riders pay $1-$2 fares, depending on their age and whether they have disabilities.

“I’m seeing a huge disconnect. We can’t increase bus ridership if we don’t have buses,” said Lee Loy. “How are we meeting our bus routes if we don’t have enough vehicles, enough buses?”

“We get the hand-me-downs,” added Puna Councilwoman Eileen O’Hara. “That makes it pretty hard to keep operating buses on the road.”

“That has been our struggle for the past six months. Our fleet is aging,” Kai responded. “We’ve been working with (Polynesian Cultural Adventures) to put their drivers in their buses.”

Buses aren’t just for the poor, council members emphasized. They’re also used by island visitors, tourists, students, seniors and disabled residents. If they were dependable, they’d be more helpful for workers and reduce traffic jams on overused roads, council members said. “A lot of people in my district are very reliant on the bus,” said Puna Councilwoman Jen Ruggles.

The Hele-On Bus Users Facebook group regularly features posts from participants asking where the bus is, or reporting buses are one, two, even three hours late. Others lament the lack of bus routes on Sunday, when only a single route is running to take primarily Puna workers to the Kohala Coast resorts.

The county is paying a consultant $500,000 to create a bus master plan, to help develop routes.

That report should be ready in February, Kai said. The county is also in the process of hiring a vendor to create a real-time app to track the buses.

That project should cost about $75,000 to set up, followed by an annual maintenance cost.

It’s possible that the switch to 20 percent biodiesel fuel six months ago harmed the aging vehicles, but there’s no direct evidence that happened, Kai said in response to council questions.

But it’s not just Wednesdays that are the problem for the Kona bus route, says former driver Jeffrey Rahm.

“The route is pretty much a joke in that it doesn’t serve the local population; rather it serves the tourist,” Rahm said.

He said the bus route was set up with times that didn’t account for school or rush hour traffic, making buses chronically late. Rahm said he drove the bus about a year, but then was fired after a rider complained.

“We, as drivers, gave recorded times at stops for about a month. (Kai) ignored them,” Rahm said. “There was pressure to do the route by an impossible schedule.”

Former bus driver Rick Thompson, who said he quit for health reasons about a year ago after driving for five years, agreed the system needs work. He said he filed complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other agencies because of his concerns. Thompson said he drove the Kona bus and occasionally, the Kona-Hilo route. He cited poor management, a cash-handling system that allows employee thefts, unrealistic timing of routes, lack of bus stops at key passenger areas and lack of bus maintenance as major problems.

“The whole system is absolutely deplorable,” Thompson said. “They have people in charge who absolutely don’t know what they’re doing.”