While Hawaii's neighbor islands draw millions of tourists each year, the residents who serve those visitors often can't afford a car and have no alternatives to the local bus. A $1.37 million federal grant is now helping keep those buses running on Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii Island.

The funding flows through the Federal Transit Administration's Section 5311 Formula Grants for Rural Areas program, one of the primary federal lifelines for transit outside major cities. The Hawaii Department of Transportation is distributing the money across three county transit agencies, each facing its own version of the same core problem: aging vehicles, strained budgets, and riders who have nowhere else to turn.

On Kauai, home to about 73,000 residents, the County of Kauai Transportation Agency will use its share to buy a replacement 21-passenger cutaway bus for the fixed-route fleet. The bus being replaced has hit the FTA's standard seven-year or 200,000-mile useful life threshold. The federal government covers 80 percent of the purchase cost under the grant, with the county covering the rest. Without that match, fleet replacement would be nearly impossible given the added expense of shipping vehicles to the island.

Maui's Department of Transportation and the Hawaii Mass Transit Agency (known on the Big Island as Hele-On Bus) are receiving operating assistance to keep drivers paid and buses on the road. HMTA's funding also covers preventive maintenance and mobility management across a county that spans 4,028 square miles, the largest county by land area in the United States.

The situation on these islands is unlike rural transit anywhere on the mainland. A resident in rural Ohio without a car can, in theory, get a ride to the next county. On Kauai, Maui, or Hawaii Island, the local bus is the only option. Riders depend on it for medical appointments, shifts at hotels and restaurants, and getting kids to school. Hawaii consistently ranks among the most expensive states in the country, with gas prices regularly topping five dollars a gallon and vehicle shipping costs adding thousands to the price of a car.

The 2023 Lahaina wildfire on Maui added another layer of strain, displacing thousands of residents and disrupting transit routes at a time when county finances were already under pressure from uneven tourism recovery.

All of this unfolds largely in the shadow of Honolulu's HART rail project on Oahu, which has ballooned from an initial $5.1 billion estimate to over $12 billion and has dominated state transportation coverage for years. The neighbor island agencies, by contrast, piece together service from modest formula grants and tight county budgets with minimal public attention.

The grant also includes Rural Transit Assistance Program funding for training and technical support across all three agencies. Small transit operations face the same federal compliance requirements as large urban systems, covering everything from ADA accessibility to drug testing and maintenance standards, but often lack the staff to manage them without outside help.

The Hawaii DOT will oversee the grant and provide ongoing technical assistance to the counties. No timeline for the Kauai bus purchase has been publicly announced.