HONOLULU -- The nearly empty hybrid buses the city placed on a new route from downtown Honolulu to Waikiki are being reassigned to a more crowded route.

KITV 4 News first reported the new, expensive buses were scarcely used after they debuted in late November.

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Bus drivers joke that the "E" in the city's E-Route stands for empty because so few people ride the new buses. However, the city will discontinue the route starting as soon as next Tuesday.

The electric buses cost more than $750,000 a piece. Ten of them are running on Route E at about 30 percent capacity. Starting Feb. 1, the city is reassigning the buses to its more crowded Route A, which runs from Waipahu to the University of Hawaii.

"We're going to utilize the buses in a better way by having it come from a very popular destination, which is Waipahu, into town. It's going to really help us with that Leeward traffic," Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann said.

The Route E buses had only eight to 10 people aboard as KITV 4 News spoke to their drivers in Waikiki. Their capacity is 100 passengers.

"So far, it hasn't been crowded," bus driver Troy Balderas said.

"I feel sorry for the tourists. They don't understand the route and most of them take forever to get to Ala Moana Center because of the route change," bus driver Sam Tatofi said.

The administration of former Mayor Jeremy Harris cut the number of Waikiki buses and reassigned their drivers to the new Route E, creating extremely crowded conditions on Waikiki buses like Route 8. Hannemann said the city will add buses back to that crowded route.

Hannemann said the new hybrid buses have a hard time going up hills.

"And therefore, it would limit to going over to the windward side. And this is something that I'm deeply chagrined about, that they didn't check this out before they bought these buses," Hannemann said.

The new Route E signs will be removed and the route will be phased out after just two months.

"This is the part of the first series of major steps that I will take to make it clear that bus rapid transit is not an option for the Hannemann administration," the mayor said.