The approved 20-mile route would begin near the planned University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu campus and end at Ala Moana Center.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said he was very happy with the decision, even though it was not for the route he favored most.

"We didn't get our first choice; we got our second choice," he said.

The route is to become the first segment of a longer system that could eventually stretch from West Kapolei to UH-Manoa.

Today's 5-to-4 vote was the same as a preliminary decision last week, when the council unexpectedly swapped the airport link with the Salt Lake route to win a crucial swing vote from Councilman Romy Cachola.

Cachola today said he was "ecstatic" that the route had held up despite attempts to alter it yet again.

"I'm on cloud nine," Cachola said.

But Councilman Charles Djou, who opposed the route and had called for an alternative that would have stretched to University and King streets, called today's action a "train wreck" that would doom the project.

"This system will be a failure from the day it starts, because it has dropped UH-Manoa and the airport," he said. "We're clearly on the wrong track."

Hannemann said he is "very confident" that work will begin by 2009, and that the project will eventually link to UH.

Voting in favor of the route chosen today were Cachola and council members Todd Apo, Nestor Garcia, Gary Okino and Rod Tam.