The Honolulu City Council voted to increase transit fares starting July 1 in an effort to cover the increasing cost of operating the city’s transit system.
A monthly pass for adults will rise from $80 to $90 and an annual pass will rise from $880 to $990, while a youth monthly pass will rise from $40 to $45. The seven-day pass geared toward visitors will rise from $35 to $45. The cost of a single ride on the Handi-Van will rise from $2.25 to $2.50. Riders’ current time window of two-and-a-half hours of free transfers will shorten to two hours. And to encourage riders to use Holo cards, cash payments will cost an extra 25 cents.
The city expects these increases to contribute another $4 million a year to the approximately $440 million system, and Department of Transportation Services director Roger Morton said the extra money will help cover projected cost increases.
Monthly and annual reduced fare rates will not change for senior citizens or those who have a disability. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2022)
Council members Radiant Cordero, Tyler Dos Santos-Tam and Matt Weyer voted against the fare increases laid out in Bill 54. During a discussion before the vote, they said the increases will hurt riders who rely on TheBus.
“When we say that we care for the poor in our community, we need to put our money where our mouth is,” Dos Santos-Tam said.
The conversation turned into a discussion about the value of public transit and what investment in the service looks like. Morton, whose department proposed the fare increases, said the increases are modest but crucial for maintaining and improving the system. His department recently launched new express routes between the airport and Waikīkī and between Lagoon Drive and the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.
“The fare is not the barrier to getting more transit ridership,” Morton said. “To get more transit ridership, the system has to be faster, it has to be frequent, it has to be convenient.”
His view was shared by council members Val Okimoto, who chairs the budget committee, and Andria Tupola, who represents the Waiʻanae Coast. Okimoto said she doesn’t like to raise fares, but that the issue has been deferred for too long. Fares last increased in 2022, when monthly adult passes rose from $70 to $80.
Tupola also said she doesn’t like to raise fares, but that the alternative would be worse. Early morning buses are packed in her district as residents commute to work, she said, and “if any of the routes got cut, it’s game over.”
Fares account for about one-tenth of the cost to operate the city’s transit system, Morton told the council. An additional $21 million comes from federal funds, he said, and the vast majority of other revenue comes from property taxes, making the system heavily subsidized.
Route 20, which often picks up people in Waikīkī on their way to the airport, was replaced by an express W route last fall, part of an initiative to attract more riders by speeding up service. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2021)
Still, the handful of people who came to testify did so to oppose the fare increases.
“Raising the fare will exacerbate Honolulu’s affordability crisis and acts as a regressive tax for people who rely on public transportation and deepens economic inequality in our city,” resident Junmi Chen told the council.
Dale Vanderbrink, a member of the Ala Moana Neighborhood Board, which — along with the Mōʻiliʻili Neighborhood Board — recently adopted a resolution opposing the transit fare increases, said it’s another example of creeping costs after council members approved sewer fee increases last year. He said many people are wondering why those who earn the least are being asked to pay more.
“I think the answer is simple,” he said. “Those who earn the least are not politically engaged. They don’t have time to attend these meetings, and many unfortunately do not vote and do not give hefty political contributions.”
In the end, the fare increases passed 6-3, with Tupola, Okimoto, council chair Tommy Waters and council members Esther Kiaʻāina, Scott Nishimoto and Augie Tulba voting to approve the bill.
Civil Beat’s reporting on economic inequality is supported by the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation as part of its work to build equity for all through the CHANGE Framework; and by the Cooke Foundation.
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