Stop Rail Now yesterday said it has sent the Federal Transit Administration a letter of complaint concerning Honolulu's $2.6 million public information campaign for rail. The letter also criticizes what it calls city efforts to suppress public participation at city-sponsored information briefings.

The city spent nearly $2.6 million from August 2005 through June 30, 2008, on a rapid-transit public information campaign that includes pro-rail advertising, community meetings and speakers bureau presentations, a monthly newsletter and a project Web site and hot line.

The city maintains those public outreach efforts are required by the federal government, which is expected to pay for a portion of the mass-transit system. However, citizens group Stop Rail Now contends the city is using taxpayer money to sway public opinion in favor of rail in advance of a Nov. 4 vote that's key to the project's future.

Stop Rail Now has attended recent project briefings requesting equal time to present alternatives to the city's $3.7 billion elevated commuter rail to audience members. On Tuesday night, that effort culminated in yelling and a shove between a rail proponent and a member of Stop Rail Now, according to the letter.

"These kind of bullying, intimidating tactics have no place in civilized discourse about critical, controversial issues like Honolulu's transit future," the group's letter to the FTA states.

City rapid transit project spokeswoman Elisa Yadao acknowledged that Tuesday night's meeting at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall "got pretty chaotic," but she blamed Stop Rail Now for trying to take over the meeting. The city allotted the anti-rail group three minutes to talk to audience members, but would not provide Stop Rail Now equal time, Yadao said.

"Our job is to present the official project and to answer questions, and for them to ask for the kind of standing they're asking for, I think, is inappropriate," she said.