Mayor maps out
ferry plan

A conference presents traffic plans,
which include partnering city bus
service with a ferry between
downtown and Kalaeloa

Mayor Mufi Hannemann's administration is looking at launching a $3 million demonstration intraisland ferry as early as next year to carry commuters between Ewa and downtown Honolulu, city officials said.

The administration disclosed details for the first time on the ferry, which was a key component in Hannemann's transportation platform during last year's mayoral campaign. It resurrects a similar attempt by the state six years ago.

The details came during a conference yesterday about ways to combat traffic congestion, including whether to allow the counties to raise the general excise tax by 1 percentage point to fund rail transit and other transportation projects.

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But Councilman Nestor Garcia, the City Council's planning and transportation chairman, said the conference was about more than just rail.

"For those of you who are concerned about whether or not we're one-track-minded, we need to take a look at all modes of transportation both short and long term."

Toru Hamayasu, city Department of Transportation Services chief planner, said the city learned a lot from the state's WikiWiki ferry demonstration, which ran from October 1999 until December 2000.

"The (WikiWiki) demonstration itself, a lot of people viewed it as it didn't work," Hamayasu told conference attendees. "But the important part about that demonstration was not so much as to attracting the riders, but to demonstrate that type of operation as physically possible."

But the biggest difference between the state's effort and the city proposal is that the city would take city buses directly to the ports to pick up and drop off ferry passengers, which was not done in the WikiWiki project.

"To expedite the implementation, we plan to use the existing infrastructure and use available vessels," Hamayasu said. "And lessons learned from WikiWiki service, we will try to get the best bus connections to the landside ports."

The first phase calls for buses coming from the Waianae Coast, Makakilo and Kapolei traveling to the harbor at Kalaeloa.

The ferry ride would take 44 minutes to complete, and, coupled with the bus connections, the total commute time could end up running more than an hour and up to 90 minutes. A bus ride from Kapolei takes a little more than an hour.

"We may not be able to beat the buses, but we should be able to provide a consistent comparable service," Hamayasu said.

He said the city is also looking at a future proposal to launch service from Iroquois Point. And while leaving that port could beat bus service, there are several obstacles to overcome, including rebuilding pier facilities and obtaining Navy and other federal approvals.

Hamayasu said the administration will be submitting a $5 million funding request in next fiscal year's capital improvement budget as a local match to $5 million in federal funding that the state receives for ferry projects.

Hamayasu said the federal government allows for $3 million to be used to pay for costs associated with a demonstration project.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Protesters with the Alliance for Traffic Improvement rallied at yesterday's transportation summit at City Hall's Mission Memorial Auditorium.

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Hannemann is scheduled to discuss today the particulars of his operating and capital improvement budgets for the next fiscal year.

Meanwhile, another Hannemann traffic solution proposal got an airing yesterday for the first time: the consolidation of the state's and city's traffic management.

One proposal calls for constructing a facility at the site of the Alapai Street bus station that would house state, city, police and possibly federal traffic officials.

City traffic engineer Ty Fukumitsu said with a single traffic center, the public would no longer be passed back and forth between the city and state when a traffic problem like a pothole comes up.

"You don't have that problem. If there's a traffic problem, you call the center, we'll take care of the problem or we can look into the problem whether it's state roads or city roads," Fukumitsu said.

Members of the Alliance for Traffic Improvement demonstrated outside the conference yesterday, protesting plans for a rail system and the call to raise the excise tax to fund the project.

The alliance's Cliff Slater instead called for reversible high-occupancy toll lanes.