FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                       January 25, 2005

Release M-11

MAYOR ANNOUNCES REDEPLOYMENT OF E-TRANSIT BUSES

Contact: Bill Brennan, 527-6928

               Mark Matsunaga, 527-5784

 Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced the city will reassign newly acquired hybrid buses from the newly created Route E downtown to Route A, running from Waipahu to the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The change will take effect by February 1 and is being made to improve efficiency and minimize operational costs of bus service on Oahu.

The hybrid buses are the newest buses in the city fleet. The mayor said, “Reassigning these buses to one of the most heavily used routes, makes the most of the city’s investment in them.”

This is the first in a series of major steps the mayor plans to take to address Oahu’s traffic problem.

Those issues were the topic of discussion on his trip to Washington, D.C., last week.

             In addition to attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the inauguration of President George W. Bush, the mayor met with Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta; Federal Transit Administrator Jennifer Dorn;  Sherry Little, a senior staff member on the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator  Daniel Inouye.

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