City officials will hold two "scoping" meetings this week that will give O'ahu residents their first glimpse of what could be the transit system of the future.

The meetings also give residents their first chance to sound off about what could end up being Honolulu's largest capital improvement project.

"We want to know what you want us to know," said Toru Hamayasu, the city's chief engineer for transportation.

For now, city officials are not focusing on the particular modes of transportation that remain alive in the discussion: light rail, monorail, magnetic levitation or managed bus lanes, Hamayasu said.

"All those are going to be studied further in the coming year; we don't have enough information yet to make decisions about that," he said. Personal rapid transit systems and heavy rail have been dismissed as impractical, he added.

Instead, officials want to hear about how they should pursue big transportation goals and what's right and wrong with five preliminary routes that have been identified for rail or managed lanes, Hamayasu said.

"Right now, we're looking for potential problems. Is one route near an ancestral burial ground we don't know about? Is there a better alignment we should be looking at?" he asked.

The scoping meetings are part of a federally required process for all mass transit projects that hope to receive federal funding. The city is considering developing a mass transit system that likely will stretch almost 23 miles between Kapolei and the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. City officials have passed an increase in the state's general excise tax to help pay for the project, which by some estimates could cost as much as $2.8 billion.

This week's meetings will not be done in the typical public hearing style in which residents grab a microphone and address a line of officials at the head of a room, Hamayasu said.

Instead, arriving residents will be encouraged to visit each of almost 40 stations scattered throughout the room with information on each alternative being considered for the project, including different route alignments. Then they'll be able to discuss the options individually with city officials. Finally, they'll be encouraged to offer written comments on cards provided for them or visit several waiting court-type reporters, who will record their oral comments, Hamayasu said.

Residents also will have until Jan. 9 to submit written comments to city or federal officials. The city hopes to have a preferred alternative identified and ready for City Council approval by the end of 2006.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.