HONOLULU -- The city's new E-Transit express bus service will leave The Bus budget about $3 million in the red by mid June. Just three weeks after the city launched the new service, many of the new and expensive buses are running practically empty.

The city said it carries 4,500 people a day on the new "E" route. It is the highest new-start numbers ever for The Bus. However, those numbers aren't so impressive when you know that other Waikiki routes carry tens of thousands of passengers a day.

It's known as route E and drivers joke that "E" stands for empty. That's what KITV 4 News found when a crew spent an hour and a half riding the entire route.

The new hybrid buses cost $750,000 each. They have a quiet, smooth ride. There are 58 seats and standing room for several dozen more passengers.

When a KITV 4 News crew boarded the express outside Ala Moana they found just 16 people on board.

"This is kind of a lot. Yesterday, I was running about three or four people," driver Irwin Nakasone said.

Nakasone feels the new service was rushed to start before Mayor Jeremy Harris leaves office at the end of the year.

"Everybody knows that if they didn't put this in before the mayor got out, this thing wouldn't get put in," Nakasone said.

The few riders on board like it.

"It's nice. It's a good ride and very few stops, so you can get to where you want to go very fast," one rider said.

Bus ridership is usually low right after the city introduces a new route, that's because riders are still getting used to the timetable and to where the bus stops are. At midday through downtown Honolulu, there were just two passengers on board; the rest of the bus was empty.

The bus reached a peak of 27 passengers, less than half full, at Bishop Street. The numbers got smaller as we entered Waikiki.

As the bus passed Waikiki Beach, there were just three passengers on board, and then just two passengers as the bus made its way down Kuhio Avenue, back toward downtown.

The driver said the new, bigger buses should be sent on crowded routes to Makaha and Central Oahu.

"I think they've got to extend it more, not just from Aala Park to Waikiki. Because most of the crowd is getting off further. All the residential areas are further down," Nakasone said.

As KITV's crew got off at Ala Moana, where the E route carried 18 passengers on Board, the regular Waikiki bus, No. 8, was just behind. That bus was standing room only.

Drivers say people are still cramming on the regular Waikiki routes because they have more stops and the new express service doesn't have as many convenient stops.

Bus officials say the new express service will leave The Bus budget with a $3 million deficit by mid June of this year. That will be a problem for the next mayor.