'Aina Haina residents will meet with the city today to fight for the restoration of a main bus route through their community.

Bus riders who live along the East and West Hind Drive loop say a new route schedule that went into effect Dec. 2 has especially affected the elderly and disabled.

The community is now served by a circulator bus, Route 233, which loops between Kahala Mall and 'Aina Haina. It had previously been served with Route 1, the main route through east Honolulu that runs from Hawai'i Kai to Kalihi.

City transit officials said the change was made to provide faster service with fewer stops through the busy corridor.

But residents say the new schedule is confusing, inconvenient and dangerous for bus riders who are elderly, disabled or school children. They point that out riders en route to Hawai'i Kai must now cross the six-lane Kalaniana'ole Highway, instead of catching a bus on the Hind loop.

The new plan also has fewer buses coming through 'Aina Haina every hour, and cuts off service earlier on weekends and holidays.

"It really is a reduction in service," said resident Art Mori, whose daughter, who has Down Syndrome, relies on the bus to get around. "Bringing that bus back through is not ... an undue inconvenience. It would only take a few extra minutes."

Wayne Yoshioka, director of the city Department of Transportation Services, will meet with Mori and other residents today to discuss the new routes and see what can be done to address their concerns.

But Yoshioka said major changes to the route will likely "take a while" because of scheduling and other concerns. In a letter to residents this month, Mayor Mufi Hannemann said major service changes could be made by March 2008.

Yoshioka also said he is committed to making sure east Honolulu residents are well-served.

"We were trying to align the system with the amount of demand out there," he said. "Obviously, we didn't get it quite right."

The east Honolulu route changes are part of a massive overhaul of city bus routes and stops planned through 2010.

Yoshioka said the route changes from Kahala Mall to Hawai'i Kai are comparable to changes made in Wai'anae, Waipahu and Mililani, and are part of a hub-and-spoke plan, in which both circulator routes and long-distance routes reach a hub at the same time to get commuters to their destinations quicker.

This isn't the first time the changes have raised the ire of residents. Communities across the island have complained about the elimination of dozens of bus stops. Critics argued that the elderly, who have difficulty walking, were hit hardest.

Roger Morton, president and general manager of Oahu Transit Services, which manages bus operations for the city, has said the changes to 'Aina Haina service were meant to bring the community in line with routes in other similar-sized places.

Morton referred comment to Yoshioka. But in a Nov. 26 letter to the editor in The Advertiser, Morton said Route 1 is the city's largest route, serving about 24,000 passengers daily.

Of those, about 160 are from 'Aina Haina.

Before the route change, Morton said, city bus service through 'Aina Haina was "greater than other communities with greater ridership. After the change, 'Aina Haina's service will be similar to service provided to Maunalani, St. Louis, 'Alewa and Pacific Heights and many other communities."

But residents say 'Aina Haina, which is situated around the 1.4-mile Hind Drive loop, is an aging community, full of seniors who need the bus to maintain their independence.

"If you have eight communities," said 'Aina Haina resident and city bus user Phyllis Ching Schwartz, "and one community is being fed and the others are being starved, are you going to take the food away from the one community so it is starved?"

Since October, when residents heard about the plan to change the routes, they have been writing letters to the city, signing petitions and speaking before their neighborhood boards.

The Hawai'i Kai and Kuliou'ou-Kalani Iki neighborhood boards have supported residents in recent meetings in their fight to restore the original route through 'Aina Haina.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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