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Kokua Line
June Watanabe
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Mililani van now accepts bus passes
Question: I have a monthly bus pass. Because the city bus doesn't go all the way into Mililani, there is a Mililani Trolley that people can take. The trolley will give and accept city bus transfers, but it will not accept monthly bus passes. Depending on the bus driver, I sometimes can get a transfer with my pass, but some of them won't give me a transfer. Why not?
Answer: As part of a one-year agreement between Mililani Trolley operators and the city, the city provided the trolley with bus transfers, allowing riders to connect with area bus routes, said Michelle Kennedy, spokeswoman for Oahu Transit Services, which operates TheBus.
Although that agreement is no longer active, TheBus is still providing transfers to the trolley as a courtesy for using the shuttle service, she said.
Under TheBus' transfer policy, a transfer is only given upon receipt of a cash fare. So a bus rider using a monthly bus pass would not be eligible to receive a transfer, Kennedy said.
"Since the Mililani Trolley is a private operation and not funded by the city, the trolley rider would need to abide by the trolley's cash fare policy," she said.
That all said, you no longer need a transfer. The Mililani Trolley no longer is restricting use of monthly bus passes, said John Coburn, corporate accounts manager for Asian Pacific Advisors, which is the marketing arm for E Noa Corp.
The trolley -- really a 14-passenger van -- is funded by Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii and operated by E Noa Corp.
The trolley was to be temporary, but Castle & Cooke is continuing to offer the shuttle as a community service, Coburn said.
Q: I have called state authorities and been informed that the private contractors responsible for cutting the weeds and bushes along Kaneohe Bay Drive, from Kamehameha Highway to the old Kaneohe Bay Drive, and along the H-3 freeway from Kailua, should be cleaning up after cutting. But they are still not picking up the trash. Specifically: behind the retaining wall by Mikiloa Drive and all along the H-3, from the Mokapu entrance to the exit to Kamehameha Highway.
A: You'll have to be patient a while longer.
"This is one of those landscaping jobs that is in transition," said Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
He explained that a previous private landscaping contract ended on Aug. 11, and "there was a holdup in the new private contractor starting."
The paperwork for the new contract is being processed, and the cleanup is scheduled to begin in early December.
Ishikawa said contractors should be picking up the cuttings and trash as part of the landscaping job.
"If they don't do it, we can deduct from their monthly invoices," he said. "If they continuously ignore it, we don't renew their contract."
An inspector will be sent to check the area during the initial cleanup (in December), he said.
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