HONOLULU -- The city's new smart card fare system for city buses is now running one year behind schedule. The city's blaming a lot of the delays on the month-long bus strike and its after effects.

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Mayor Jeremy Harris told city officials to rush the smart card project so it could be in service by last July. However, now the city predicts it won't be in operation until July or August of this year, that's a one-year delay.

Commuters are already using smart cards in cities like New York, where the technology is a way of life for subway riders. It's also being used in the Washington D.C. area as well. Smart cards can be purchased at transit stations and retail shops.

Electronic readers deduct the value for each bus or train trip and riders can recharge them by purchasing more value.

Honolulu bus commuters will have to wait a while before using the new technology. A memo obtained by KITV 4 News sent by the city's transportation director in 2002 said, "The mayor asked that we fast-track this project and target July 1, 2003 as the implementation date."

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The city awarded a $2.2 million contract to Royal Contracting, a construction company with no experience in bus or transit. The city said it was satisfied that two of the company's subcontractors had experience in smart card technology.

However, the first delay hit when Royal Contracting had difficulty getting a bond to guarantee the job because the bonding company was concerned about its lack of experience in bus software. The city pushed back testing to September of last year, with planned operation in January or February of 2004.

(Timeline: Smart Card Project)

In late August, bus employees went on strike for a month, further delaying smart cards. Once the strike was settled, city transit employees were overwhelmed, trying to process more than 25,000 senior citizen bus passes because of a fare increase.

The city now says smart card testing won't begin until March and the system won't be operating on all city buses until July or August of this year, a full year after the original target.

SMART CARD SCHEDULE: ONE DELAY AFTER ANOTHER
EVENT	PROJECTED DATE	ACTUAL DATE
Receive Proposals from Companies	Dec. 20, 2002	Jan. 8, 2003
Contract Signed and Notice to Proceed	Jan. 31, 2003	July 7, 2003
Bus Employee Training	June 13, 2003	February 2004 *
System Testing	June 27, 2003	March 2004*
System-wide Implementation	July 1, 2003	July or August 2004 *
		*predicted

Transit officials thought it was not a good idea to introduce a change in fare technology soon after a strike and two fare hikes. In a written statement, the city said, "It made common sense to wait until the bad feelings, both of riders and operators, subsided."

The city said it has paid Royal Contracting just $206,000 of the project's $2.2 million contract so far.

Last fall, the company's vice president, Leonard Leong, pleaded no contest to making illegal donations to the Harris' campaign, and paid a $1,000 fine. The Campaign Spending Commission fined Royal Contracting another $20,000 for the violation.