on city bus pass
Tour operators say they can't compete
with a subsidized system
By Russ LynchStar-Bulletin
But the operator of TheBus defends the $10 pass as a way to reduce its dependence on public funds. And some tourism officials say it's a good thing for visitors and the industry in general.
Oahu Transit Services Inc. began selling the passes in July at the ABC stores in Waikiki and at the city bus pass offices. Tourists mark the starting day from a set of scratch-off numbers and the bus driver monitors when they expire.
The pass, which is geared to tourists but also available to residents, was approved more than a year ago by the City Council as part of a measure that raised the basic bus fare to $1 from 85 cents. OTS said it waited this long to put it into effect because it needed to talk to the tourist industry.
Although the talks satisfied many, some serious objections remain.
"It's not fair to give tourists a cheap deal when you're subsidizing the operator," said Wayne Vieira, executive director of the Hawaii Activities and Tours Association, which represents commercial shuttle bus operators, taxis and other parts of the tourism industry. "Why should our tax money subsidize a public entity and then that public entity tries to put us out of business?"
His organization has 42 member companies that together represent more than 10,000 tourism workers, he said.
Dale Evans, chief executive of Charley's Taxi & Tours, said, "It will affect the shuttle business more than the taxis initially, but for the long term it will all be affected."
"The problem is that they are a publicly subsidized operation, and here they are coming in to compete against businesses who for the last 20 years have built up the market, and it looks like the city is trying to come in and take over," she said. "There is no way the private operators can compete against a city subsidized operator."
In testimony before the Honolulu Public Transit Authority, which oversees the bus company, Roger Watson, general manager of E Noa Corp., said much the same early this week.
"As you know, private transportation has no subsidy and must sink or swim according to the marketplace, competitive forces and internal operating efficiencies," said Watson, whose company also operates the Waikiki Trolley.
Roger Morton, director of bus operations at Oahu Transit Services, said the tourist pass was designed to make money and reduce the system's reliance on subsidies.
Last year, TheBus cost $99 million to run and had revenues of about $32 million so it needed a subsidy of about $67 million, he said. The system gets about $1.5 million a year in federal money, the rest comes from city coffers.
Morton said OTS has not heavily promoted the visitor pass because it is controversial. "Nobody wants to do anything that would be injurious to the visitor industry."
City bus drivers are keeping a tally of what type of fare or pass each passenger is using but it will be a few months before the statistics are tallied, Morton said. Still, OTS believes that tourists using the pass will take fewer than the 10 rides their $10 would buy at the regular fare, he said.
OTS sold about 1,000 of the tourist passes in the first month they were available.
Janet Clark, executive director of the Waikiki Oahu Visitors Association, said the group supports the pass. "It does keep our (road) congestion down to a degree and it gives these visitors a taste of what local life is like, which is good too."
WOVA, an affiliate of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, encourages tourists to get out of Waikiki and see the rest of the island and a bus pass is a good way to do that, Clark said.
Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel Association, said it seemed like a reasonable idea when his group reviewed the tourist pass idea. "It was a convenient way for tourists to get around."