Honolulu residents have at least five years to wait before a planned $5.3 billion elevated commuter train launches service.

However, a preview of what to expect can be found in Phoenix, where a new $1.4 billion, 20-mile light rail train launched service over the holidays.

More than 150,000 people rode the new light-rail trains that rolled out last weekend. Service between Mesa and downtown Phoenix started Saturday, Dec. 27. By Tuesday, the ground-level train had its first accident with an auto.

The launch of train service culminated more than a decade of planning. Service started on a cold Saturday morning precisely at 10 a.m. when trains carrying passengers started rolling down the tracks.

At stations all along the line, passengers lined up with video and cellphone cameras to record the moment.

"I've been waiting for this day like a kid waiting for Christmas," said Janine Roumain of Tempe.

A native of Chicago, Roumain expects transplants from other big cities will gravitate to the mass-transit system.

"Students, poor people, older people, tourists — this will appeal to all sorts of groups," she said.

When the trains started running, they worked almost perfectly — but the lines remained long. A police officer in Mesa estimated that the line to get on was approximately 2 1/2 hours around noon the first day.

At the other end, near the Christown Spectrum Mall, the line was approximately 90 minutes at midday.

Riders would get on the train at one end and ride it all the way to the other, a trip that takes an hour and 25 minutes.

Others used the train as an excuse to bar-hop in downtown Phoenix, meet friends for lunch on Mill Avenue or take a trip to Mesa.

Holly Pearson of Tempe and friend Travis Sealock of Chandler rode the train from Tempe to Central Avenue in Phoenix to share a meal at Matt's Big Breakfast.

"For three years I've been watching it be built," said Pearson, who lives near the line on Apache Boulevard. "I had to see what it was like."

Riders appeared to be enjoying themselves.

They cheered when they crossed Tempe Town Lake, they pointed at things they were seeing from a new perspective and kept smiling even as they stayed crammed together for the entire ride.

The light-rail project began gathering steam in 1996, when Tempe voters passed a transit tax.

Phoenix voters followed in 2000, setting the stage for the federal government to approve a $587 million grant for the project.

Honolulu's train will be financed by a 12.5 percent hike in the general excise tax for 15 years. That's expected to raise more than $4 billion, which is expected to be augmented by $1.2 billion in federal grants. Groundbreaking for Honolulu's train is expected to occur in December 2009, with limited service starting by 2014. Full service between East Kapolei and Ala Moana is expected to begin by 2019.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Phoenix rail occurred in February 2005. It marked the start of nearly four years of construction that hurt businesses and forced lengthy lane closures on major arterial streets.

It also created hundreds of jobs and spurred significant redevelopment efforts along the line. Tempe attributes $4 billion in projects to light rail's influence.

The Dec. 27 opening had officials breathing a sigh of relief and promising great things to come.

"Everyone's talking about how much fun this is and how exciting it is. But we all know that this is not a Disneyland ride," said U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz. "This is the first phase of a light-rail system that will help us reach a shared vision of an ... economically vibrant urban corridor."

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, a strong light-rail advocate since coming into office, bounded out of a rail car and began shaking hands at Third and Washington streets in downtown Phoenix.

"They said this was a folly," a triumphant Gordon told the crowd. "They said it shouldn't be built. ... Today, you don't hear or see many of those individuals. ... Now more than ever, you've seen how it's created thousands of well-paying jobs."

On Dec. 28, a Sunday, riders waited in long lines at both ends of the boarding stations in Phoenix and Mesa, but the wait wasn't as bad as Saturday when the trains debuted.

By Tuesday the train was involved in its first accident.

It was a minor crash, but it still startled passengers and caused delays along the train route.

According to police, a Honda crossed the tracks near First Avenue and Jefferson Street and hit the train. The driver fled, and the incident was being treated as a hit-and-run.

The Arizona Republic contributed to this report.