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The commission wants DTS to look into the impacts — to both the city and riders — of a $3 fare structure and compare them with the impacts of a $2.50 fare as well as the existing $2.75 fare. Read more

The Honolulu Rate Commission agreed Monday to ask the city Department of Transportation Services to analyze the impacts of a payment structure centered around a $3 standard adult trip fare.

Meanwhile, the six members on the commission agreed to recommend a policy change that would require Oahu transit passengers to rethink their riding habits because it would eliminate daily, weekly, monthly and annual passes in favor of a system that would “cap” how much commuters would pay on a given day or month.

The commission wants DTS to look into the impacts — to both the city and riders — of a $3 fare structure and compare them with the impacts of a $2.50 fare as well as the existing $2.75 fare.

Currently, adults may purchase a daily pass for $5.50, a monthly pass for $70 or annual pass for $770. By switching to the recently introduced, reloadable electronic Holo card, which acts like a prepaid debit card, riders would be charged for up to three trips a day and 30 trips a month and then get any other rides free.

So under the $3-per-trip scenario, commuters would pay a maximum of $9 a day and $90 a month.

Seniors (65 and older), those with disabilities and youths (6 to 17, or up to 19 if still in high school) would see the more significant fare hikes under the proposal. Seniors now pay $1 one way, and youths pay $1.25. The proposal calls for them all to pay half the standard fare, or $1.50 if the standard fare was $3. The daily cap for seniors, those with disabilities and youths would be $4.50 a day and $45 a month. Seniors and those with disabilities now pay $35 for an annual pass — there is no monthly pass for them — while youths pay $35 a month.

While commissioners are still unsure about a rate recommendation, they agreed to support charging a single, intermodal rate that would apply to bus and rail rides whenever the city’s long-awaited rail transit line begins operations. The current project is for the first leg, from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium, to open in December 2020.

The commission only makes recommendations to the City Council, which has the authority to set rates. Before submitting its recommendation to the Council, the commission wants DTS to analyze the plan’s financial impacts.

Rate Commission Chairwoman Cheryl Soon said she’s hoping a recommendation can be finalized by the end of January in hopes of giving time for Council members to receive public comment and make a decision before rail actually begins operations.

“We had promised that we would have something for their consideration prior to the initial opening of rail,” Soon said. That could be determined in part by what DTS calculates as the net in revenues under the proposal and how they compare with operating costs. Current policy calls for a fare box recovery rate of 25%-30% of cost, which would require taxpayers to subsidize the system 70% to 75%.

“We don’t know until they crunch the numbers,” Soon said. “Some of these things could be revisited when we see the numbers.”

Due to declining ridership and revenues, the Council only several years ago moved the policy lower from what had been a recovery rate of 27%-32%.

DTS this year provided no recommendations for rates or fare structure for the commission to consider.

Last year the commission submitted one proposal and DTS offered a different plan for the Council to consider. After much debate the Council failed to adopt two different bills last year that would have raised rates.

In coming up with its plan this year, the commission is focusing on simplifying the rate structure, making fares equitable and encouraging more people to ride public transit, said Soon, a DTS director under former Mayor Jeremy Harris.

Other general structural points commissioners voted to support:

>> To take into account the need to transfer vehicles (or modes), the commission is defining a single-fare trip as all rides within a two-hour span, regardless of direction. They noted that a Waikiki worker commuting from Ewa Beach would likely spend at least 45 minutes on TheBus to come into town and then need to wait to transfer at least once to get to work. Transfers were eliminated when fares were last increased on Jan. 1, 2018, with transit officials arguing that those needing to ride on multiple vehicles could do so with the new daily rate.

>> The single “discounted rate category,” where riders would pay half of the standard adult fare, would apply not just for seniors, those with disabilities, and youths, but those on Medicare.

>> There would be a low- income program where those eligible would pay only 25% of the standard adult fare. To qualify, passengers must meet the federal guideline used for housing and make no more than 30% of area median income. Currently, there is a little-known program overseen by the Department of Community Services that provides an eligible rider a $10 monthly discount through a subsidy that can be applied to the purchase of a monthly pass.

For more on TheBus, go to thebus.org.

Correction: The Honolulu Rate Commission agreed Monday to ask the Department of Transportation Services to analyze the impacts of a rate structure centered around a $3 standard adult trip fare and compare it with the impacts of a $2.50 fare and the existing fare of $2.75. The headline and first paragraph in an earlier version of this story incorrectly said the Honolulu Rate Commission gave tentative approval to a plan to raise fares. This story has been updated throughout to reflect the change.