Honolulu City Council members yesterday deferred action on measures that would change the elevated commuter rail route to Honolulu International Airport.

One of the last major decisions facing the city on the multibillion-dollar rail project is whether the route should go through Salt Lake as planned, or run next to Pearl Harbor Naval Base and the airport.

Some council members had sought to have final approval of the route change as early as Dec. 3, and an expedited route change could reduce potential delays in the project. However, the accelerated timetable also reduces the amount of time proponents for a Salt Lake route have to rally support for their cause.

The council's Transportation and Public Works Committee was expected to approve the change yesterday. Now the committee doesn't plan to hear the measures until Jan. 8 at the earliest, which could push any final approval until later in January or sometime in February. Committee Chair Nestor Garcia said the delay will allow residents more time to voice their opinions on which route the train from East Kapolei to Ala Moana should take.

The new deadline coincides with a Jan. 7 deadline for public comments on the project's draft environmental impact statement.

"I do not want to presume that this committee will forge ahead and in effect this is a fait accompli without giving the public an opportunity to weigh in on the project via the draft EIS," Garcia said.

The city plans to start work on the rail line in late 2009. Limited service between West Loch and Waipahu would start in late 2013, and full service to Ala Moana would begin by the end of 2018. Changing the route would break a commitment by the city to the Salt Lake community, which successfully lobbied for the current train route in early 2007. That's when City Councilman Romy Cachola, who represents Salt Lake, cast a swing vote to keep the rail project alive, if it went through Salt Lake rather than the airport.

A commuter rail system that runs past Pearl Harbor and the airport would cost more to build and maintain, but carry more passengers and alleviate more traffic, according to the city's recent draft environmental study. The change would add about $220 million to the project's $4.28 billion price tag.

Five people testified in favor of a Salt Lake route, while no one testified in favor of the airport route at yesterday's hearing. Several said they felt betrayed by the effort to switch the route.

The suburban Salt Lake area could generate higher ridership at a lower cost, said Salt Lake resident Tony Soon Fah.

"I voted for rail because it was passing through Salt Lake and now we shouldn't even be having this discussion here today about passing it through the airport," he said.

In addition to route, unsettled questions relating to procurement pose a risk to plans to begin construction in about a year.

The question is whether the city can legally solicit bids to begin construction of the $4.3 billion train.

The committee passed a bill that would remove a technical glitch preventing the solicitation of proposals to begin construction of the first phase.

The original ordinance authorizing the city to build the train requires the administration to seek council approval before soliciting proposals to build the train system. That was added as an attempt to keep the council and pubic informed about key project details. However, that provision also violates state procurement laws, according to the state Procurement Office.

Bill 63 would eliminate that provision and allow the city administration to seek construction proposals without council approval, but that issue also isn't expected to be resolved until sometime early next year. Also, the city cannot begin preliminary engineering on the project until questions about the route are settled, said Wayne Yoshioka, director of the city's Department of Transportation Services.

"Right now we think we can still break ground at the end of 2009," Yoshioka said. "It really depends on how things move once we're back on track again."

"We're trying to accommodate these slight delays, but the delays are adding up."