Transit supporters from Makakilo to Manoa were generally pleased with the City Council's decision to move forward with a $4 billion-plus transit project and to keep a number of route options alive.

"I'm happy, although I'd like to see the building going on right now," said Mike Golojuch, 62, a Makakilo resident since 1981. Traffic, he said, "has gotten worse and worse."

Golojuch, vice chairman of the Maka-kilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board, said he and others in his area supported the so-called "green" route, which travels deep into 'Ewa, because they believe it would be better for the entire 'Ewa region.

He disagreed with those who argued that the "yellow route" would be more beneficial to those in the region from Wai'anae to Kapolei.

"If you're up in Makakilo, you're going to take a circulator bus down — either to the green route or the yellow route," said Golojuch, a city employee who works in downtown Honolulu.

A PLEASANT SURPRISE

'Ewa Beach resident Jim Moylan testified before the council early yesterday and went home thinking there would be a deferral on the decision. He was ecstatic to hear the council had instead voted for the project and decided to leave open the option of using the green route.

"If it's the yellow route, I would still hop on," Moylan said. "But the growth of the 'Ewa Plains is clearly going to be along the green route. That's where we gotta go because that is where the revenue is going to come from."

Moylan, who lives in the Ocean Pointe subdivision and works in an office nearby, said the green route is where development has yet to occur, and landowners have promised to provide the land for transit centers and other transit-related improvements.

"The boom in 'Ewa is also due to the businesses," he said. "It all goes hand-in-hand. Businesses which employ help the people in the 'Ewa Plains."

Ernie Murano, president of the Kalihi Business Association, said his organization supports the concept of a rail line, although it continues to have concerns about how the project will affect its members.

"We know that it reduces traffic," Murano said, noting that he's hopeful that Mayor Mufi Hannemann's Kalihi roots will play a role in ensuring that disruption to area businesses will be minimal.

NOT EVERYONE'S HAPPY

Former state lawmaker Len Pepper, a member of the Salt Lake Neighborhood Board, was among those not happy yesterday. Just as 'Ewa residents who want rail going through their neighborhoods know that leaving the remaining route options up to the mayor is good for them, Salt Lake residents know that the city recommendation favors going through the airport area rather than through Salt Lake Boulevard, as they prefer.

"It would serve the residents of the corridor from the stadium to Foster Village to Aliamanu Military Reservation to the entire Salt Lake subdivision," Pepper said. "The area would simply not be served by an airport route."

Pepper said he believes a good number of Salt Lake residents won't be willing to hop on a bus to get to a transit station to ride the rail to work.

City transit studies failed to take into account that there are fewer airport commuters on weekends and after daylight hours, numbers that would boost ridership numbers more in favor of the Salt Lake route, he said.

Grant Teichman, president of the Associated Students of the University of Hawai'i, was pleased with the transit vote.

"I'd say that a rail line would have an impact on those who go to the university," Teichman said. "Anybody who traverses along the freeway will attest to that."

Teichman, who lives at the Atherton YMCA on University Avenue, said he and students also are banking on the city keeping both a planned Waikiki spur and the airport route.

Many UH students work in Waikiki and along the airport route, he said.

Teichman said he and other UH leaders will continue to press the city to ensure that the administration follows through with the rail line, as well the routes that best serve the campus' 30,000 students.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.