Four Honolulu City Council members plan to visit France and the Netherlands next month at the invitation of a company that may eventually bid for city rail contracts.

The council is likely today to approve sending members Romy Cachola, Donovan Dela Cruz, Ann Kobayashi and Rod Tam on the all-expenses-paid European trip.

Phileas Advanced Public Transport System, based in Helmond, the Netherlands, valued the four-day trip for the four council members at an estimated $7,500.

"It's cheap if you can get the council members to buy your system," said City Councilman Charles Djou.

The council has approved a plan to build a multibillion-dollar transit system for Honolulu and is scheduled to vote on the initial phase today.

Djou, who opposes the transit system, expressed concerns about a fact-finding trip paid for by a company that would stand to gain considerably if Honolulu picks its technology.

Djou said that while the trip is legal and isn't using taxpayer dollars, it still raises questions.

Kobayashi defended the trip, saying she doesn't perceive it as a conflict because the city is publicly declaring its sponsors.

"It doesn't buy you or anything," she said.

The $7,500 gift would pay for the four council members' airfare from Washington, D.C. — where they will be attending a National Association of Counties meeting — and their lodging and meals while they are in Europe, according to a resolution up for approval before the council. The trip would be from March 9 to 13.

Phileas builds what it calls "a tram on tires." According to its Web site, extra-long buses run in dedicated bus lanes fitted with magnetic markers to guide the buses. The company has six local marketing offices around the world, including one in Honolulu.

BUSES LOW PRIORITY

The city hasn't given much consideration to a bus system, Kobayashi said.

"Everybody's been looking at rail, but no one's been looking at fixed guideway bus," she said.

Kobayashi sees that technology as less expensive and more flexible because it wouldn't require the city to put down tracks.

Djou said council members have gone to various places to look at transit in the past 12 months, with some trips paid by taxpayers, some by private companies. He said the trips have included visits to: Portland, Ore., Chicago, San Diego, Denver, Las Vegas, Vancouver, B.C., Singapore, Japan and Korea.

Djou said he has not gone on any transit trips. "I don't take taxpayer money for junkets," he said.

The resolution the council is scheduled to consider today says the gift will allow the four to "participate in a fact-finding trip from Washington, D.C., to the Netherlands and France to observe mass transit systems, including the Phileas Advanced Public Transport System."

Harry Otsuji, a consultant working in the Phileas APTS Hawai'i office, wrote a letter to Council Chairwoman Barbara Marshall inviting four council members on the trip.

"The Phileas system combines the characteristics of a rubber-tired trans/metro system, with the flexibility and lower operating costs of a bus system," Otsuji wrote.

VANCOUVER VERSION

Kobayashi said she went to Vancouver on a trip sponsored by the Bombardier company to look at the SkyTrain rail system there and thinks it's useful to see the technology in person while the city is planning transit — the largest public-works project in the state's history. Bombardier built and operates Vancouver's system.

"We have to be very sure we have the right technology," Kobayashi said, before the city commits to a technology. "Once you lay down the rail, you're not going to change."

The city administration did not respond to a request to comment on the viability of the bus technology. The city has said in the past that a revamped bus system alone would not qualify for federal transit money.

If the new system operated on magnets embedded in the road, Kobayashi said, it offers the option of the bus driving on the regular road and cars driving on the fixed guideway.

"It's very flexible," she said. "It will be interesting to see."

Kobayashi said she found the rail system in Vancouver impressive, although she wonders if it's better suited for longer distance than would be required in Honolulu.

"I thought that was a very good system," she said. "I think it's only fair to look at both technologies."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.