Opponents of the city's planned first phase of a mass transit project say they'll push for a floor fight at the City Council next week, but administration officials said changing the plan now could kill the project.

After hearing from disappointed residents on both ends of the island, the City Council's Budget and Transportation committees yesterday approved the city's plan to build an East Kapolei to Ala Moana first segment of what ultimately could be a 28-mile train line.

That route is the only one that meets federal cost-effectiveness guidelines for a "minimal operable segment," said Toru Hamayasu, the city's chief transit engineer. Starting with a different alignment, as suggested by those favoring West Kapolei or Manoa, would risk losing federal funding for the $3.54 billion first phase.

"I don't know how we could do without that. It would kill the whole thing," Hamayasu said.

Others argued, however, that leaving West Kapolei, Salt Lake or the University of Hawai'i-Manoa out of the initial phase of the transit line doesn't make sense. Several critics accused the city of manipulating cost and ridership figures to make its own plan look better.

"The city report grossly undervalues the student ridership," said Grant Teichman, president of undergraduate students at UH. "If the system ends at Ala Moana, students won't use it, and they are skeptical that it will ever reach the university."

City Council members late last year approved a plan to build the entire system from Kapolei town to UH, with an extension to Waikiki, but Mayor Mufi Hannemann said that for now, the city only can expect enough money to build a 20-mile portion of the line.

Hamayasu told committee members yesterday that the segment chosen — from near the new UH-West O'ahu campus to Ala Moana Center via Honolulu International Airport — scored the best under a complex cost-effectiveness index that the Federal Transit Administration uses to rank new-start projects across the country.

Two other plans, including a Leeward Community College to UH-Manoa alignment proposed by Councilman Charles Djou, would not meet the FTA's minimum standard for funding, he said.

Council member Romy Cachola, who favors an initial route through the Salt Lake high-rise district over the Pearl Harbor and airport areas, questioned whether the city was picking and choosing its cost and ridership figures.

"If you come up with a segment that doesn't include UH or Salt Lake, the numbers just don't fit," he said. "I still think they are tilted."

However, Makakilo resident Maeda Timson said she supports the city's plan, even though it won't reach all the way to Kapolei town at first. "I'm sick and tired of people pitting community against community. We'd like to see it start on the west side of Kapolei, but we're willing to compromise because we know it will be a good thing, and we know it will expand eventually."

After a four-hour hearing, the committee members voted 4-2 to approve the city's minimal operable system, or MOS, request. They took no action on Djou's proposal for a line that would end at UH-Manoa.

However, Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz said he'll ask Chairwoman Barbara Marshall to allow a hearing on an amended version of the MOS resolution when it's heard by the full council Wednesday.

"We want to review the city's figures and see if a change really would be fatal. We'll try to discuss it before the full council," Dela Cruz said.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.