City scraps Aiea
transit hub, plans
Kakaako tram route

The changes are part of the
city's Bus Rapid Transit Plan

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.com

City officials want to scrap plans for an Aiea transit center opposed by residents who feared traffic jams.

Meanwhile, planners will add a short tram route through lower Kakaako to help boost redevelopment. That involves the CityTram segment of the Bus Rapid Transit Plan through urban Honolulu.

The changes were announced to members of the City Council Transportation Committee at a meeting yesterday.

City Transportation Director Cheryl Soon said the Council needs to approve the plan changes.

The Aiea change eliminates using the old Kam Drive-in as a transit center and cancels proposed bus-only on- and offramps from H-1 freeway onto Kaonohi Street.

Aiea-Pearl City residents, led by area Councilman Gary Okino, objected to the proposal. Residents said traffic in the area, fueled in large part by nearby Pearlridge Center, is bad enough without a major transit stop.

Instead, Soon said, the city now is looking at expanding its planned transit center at Aloha Stadium and creating a town-bound onramp and Ewa-bound offramp from H-1. That will allow express buses to pick up and drop off riders along Kamehameha Highway and connect with a nonstop route between the stadium and the city's Middle Street transit station, she said.

The city's $1 billion-plus Bus Rapid Transit Plan combines circulator routes in rural areas with express buses to form a "hub-and-spoke" network. It also features a CityTram line, whose technology has yet to be decided, which will travel along the main thoroughfares in urban Honolulu.

Soon said the city is now proposing that a third leg of the CityTram be created to service the area now being developed as Kakaako makai.

"We're giving much better service to people at Aloha Tower, at Fort Armstrong and Pier 2 where the cruise ships are going to be and along Ilalo Street, which is the proposed relocation area for the UH medical school, a biotech park and the new aquarium and ocean science center," Soon said.

Another key change made after meetings with community groups is an alteration of the King Street route, which will now use Pensacola Street rather than Ward Avenue to drop down onto Kapiolani Boulevard. Community residents said Pensacola would be better suited to accommodate the tram than the already busy Ward, Soon said.

Soon said the time line for the Bus Rapid Transit project now calls for a final environmental impact statement to be done by the end of the year, securing of federal funding next year and construction to begin in 2003. The project would then be completed by 2005, she said.