WAILUKU, Maui — Despite ongoing budget woes that have put the brakes on other aspects of Maui County's burgeoning public bus system, the county does have money to move forward with plans to build bus stop shelters.

County transportation director Don Medeiros said he expects his department will use $450,000 allocated by the County Council this year to build nine bus shelters in Maui Bus' hub behind the Queen Ka'ahumanu Shopping Center. Construction should begin near the start of 2010, he said.

Maui Bus is operated by Roberts Hawaii under a contract with the county and has an annual budget of about $7 million. Medeiros said that even with exploding ridership since the bus program's inception in 2003, the county still subsidizes the Maui Bus (launched about three years ago) by about $6 million a year, not including millions in federal funds for new buses and other equipment.

With property tax collection headed in the wrong direction during the recession, Mayor Charmaine Tavares told all county departments last summer to slash their budgets in preparation for the 2010 fiscal year. Maui Bus lost 8 percent, and as a result, Kula residents probably won't get $500,000 for their much-anticipated bus route for at least a couple more years, Medeiros said.

"We're going to meet our goals," Medeiros said. "It's just going to take some time. We're working on it. People have to remember that we're only three years old."

The Maui Bus operates 13 regular routes and seven routes for commuters. Fares are $1 per trip or $35 for a monthly bus pass. The Maui Bus offers free rides on five routes, in Wailuku, Kahului and Lahaina.

In its inaugural year, the bus system carried just 29,000 passengers. Two years later, in 2006, ridership jumped to 292,000. The next year, the hub — the central location where passengers transfer — was put at Queen Ka'ahumanu Center, and ridership hit 865,000.

The 2008-09 fiscal year, which ended June 30, saw Maui Bus handle more than 2 million riders. And with gas prices in constant flux and the economy handcuffed to insecurity, Medeiros said he has no idea where bus ridership will plateau.

County officials, with Tavares in the lead, say they need to do more to make taking the bus as pleasant as possible to encourage more ridership. However, council members scrambling to balance the budget actually reduced the Maui Bus capital improvement budget this year by $200,000.

Medeiros said that if more than 30 people use a particular bus stop daily, the stop gets the full treatment, with a shelter, solar-powered interior lights, trash cans, bicycle racks, signs, sidewalks and wheelchair ramps.