The city plans to release more than 600 comments and concerns lodged in connection with plans to build a $5.4 billion elevated commuter railway from East Kapolei to Ala Moana.

Those responses were submitted to the city and the Federal Transit Administration as part of an ongoing federal environmental review. The comments, some of which have criticized the city's plans, have trickled out to the public in recent weeks when they were released by their authors. But the city so far has declined to release all the comments.

That will change soon. City Councilman Duke Bainum recently introduced a resolution asking for the release of the comments. And last week, Councilman Gary Okino asked the city to provide the council with copies of all comments that were submitted by a February deadline.

Those comments were released to council members yesterday and are likely to be made public Monday, Okino said.

"It's coming very soon," he said. "I don't think there's anything to hide."

Okino said the comments are contained on more than 1,300 pages of documents.

City Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka didn't return a message from The Advertiser.

So far, the city has decided not to release the more than 200 comments that were submitted in response to the draft environmental impact study that was released late last year. As a result, most of those comments probably will not become publicly available until later this year.

Some agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have voluntarily released their comments, while others such as Ala Moana Center owner General Growth Properties have refused to release them.

The EPA has urged Honolulu officials to alter the train's route to avoid displacing a small Waiawa neighborhood. The agency also has asked the city to justify why alternatives to an elevated rail line, such as light rail at street level and bus rapid transit, weren't evaluated in the project's environmental impact study.

The EPA isn't the only agency that's asking the city to explain why the environmental impact statement didn't analyze the potential impacts of various ground-level transit alternatives. Major landowner Kamehameha Schools, the American Institute of Architects and other groups have urged the city to build a ground-level train that would cost less and create less visual blight.

The city is responding to those comments, which cover a range of concerns about noise, aesthetics, archaeological conservation, energy use and more.

The environmental study is a major hurdle in the city's effort to obtain $1.4 billion in federal money to build the train system.