The County’s Mass Transit Agency will be implementing service recommendations from the Transit and Multi-Modal Transportation Master Plan
The County of Hawai’i Mass Transit Agency is implementing the recommendations for fixed-route and paratransit service from the Final Transit and Multi-Modal Transportation Master Plan adopted in 2018. As a result, there will be more routes, later service, and new service added on Sundays.
There will be added Sunday service in the Waimea, Hilo, Kailua-Kona, and Puna areas of the island. Routes in Hilo, Waimea, and Kailua-Kona will operate every 60 to 120 minutes. Additional trips will be added on service to Volcano, North Kohala, South Kohala, Honoka’a, and Waimea routes.
New service will be established between:
- Waimea and Kailua-Kona via Route 76
- Green Line, between Hilo and Kona via Route 2
- Blue Line, within Kailua-Kona on Routes 202 and 204
- Within Hilo on Route 104
- Within the Puna District on Routes 401, 402 and 403
The implementation of the restructured transit service supports the efforts of Mayor Roth to increase access to public transit for all island residents, allowing for more economic development, improved access to employment, shopping, medical, education, and quality of life opportunities and helps the County to achieve substantiality goals regarding transportation as set forth from the Sustainability Summit that occurred this past March.
Timetables and route maps will be available on the buses and online in mid-August 2021.
Additional actions that have since been implemented or are in the process of being implemented from the Master Plan include launching the Hele-On Bus social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, providing General Feed Transit Specification to Google, Bing, and Apple to allow for the addition of bus routes on their map applications, development of a new brand to be placed on all the transit buses, implementation of route numbers and route names, development of a new timetable with more information about Hele-On Transit services continued receipt of grants to replace the aging transit fleet with new electric, hydrogen, and diesel hybrid electric buses, streamlined transfers to increase access to passengers riding Hele-On routes, implementing flex route service on Route 301: Waimea Shuttle to bring the bus close closer to Waimea residents, implementing paratransit service within a one-mile radius of Route 40: Hilo-Pahoa-Kalapana for those with disabilities, a new partnership with HIBIKE bike-sharing service in Hilo and Kailua Kona, and upgrading the website to provide accessible and clearer information to the general public. More continued improvements based on the Final Transit and Multi-ModalTransportation Master Plan will continue to occur throughout 2021 and into 2022.
Additionally, on Monday, September 6, 2021, Hele-On will operate a Sunday Schedule on Labor Day. Only Routes 2, 11, 40, 70, 75, 80, 90, 101, 201, 202, 301 and 401 will operate. More details on those routes are available on the Hele-On website. For more information about Hele-On, and the new Route 201: Kona Trolley, please call (808) 961-8744, TDD: 711 through the relay service, email heleonbus@hawaiicounty.gov, visit www.heleonbus.org, or find Hele-On Bus on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube.
