A majority of City Council members are leaning toward a timetable that would push some key decisions on O'ahu's transit future into next spring, beyond a self-imposed year-end deadline.

But city administration officials warned that delaying too long could drive up costs and jeopardize federal funding.

The council yesterday gave initial approval to a series of three bills designed to make the transit decision in steps:

First, selecting the mode: no-build, expanded buses, rail transit or managed lanes, which would include toll roads.

Second, choosing the technology.

Third, choosing the route and the sites of transit stations.

City Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz said the council wants to make sure that these major decisions are made with lots of community input and detailed analysis of the impact of the choices.

"We're saying we need those tools to help us make that decision," he said.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann has said he favors keeping the transit decision on a fast track because the one-half percentage-point increase in the excise tax goes into effect on Jan. 1.

City transportation engineer Toru Hamayasu said delaying too long could endanger federal funding and mean higher construction costs. He said the city plans to present its recommendation on Wednesday for a long-debated transit alternative to try to alleviate O'ahu's growing gridlock.

Dela Cruz late yesterday scheduled a special council meeting for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday on the much-awaited $10 million transit alternatives analysis and draft environmental impact statement so the process could be as public as possible.

Hamayasu said delays in the transit timetable could become costly because costs for construction continue to rise. With a project estimated to exceed $3 billion, Hamayasu estimated that delays could cost $300,000 a day.

"If you change it in a way that we haven't studied — that alignment or that combination (of routes) — then we have to go back to study it," Hamayasu said.

Hannemann spokesman Bill Brennan said the mayor supports making all the decisions on the transit system at the same time, in part to save money.

"Our hope would be that the council would choose a locally preferred alternative by the end of the year before the tax is collected," Brennan said.

"The more you delay, the more you're going to pay."

Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said she envisions choosing the mode of transit by Dec. 31 and the alignment and technology by March.

Rail transit critic Cliff Slater said the council needs the draft EIS before members can reasonably select a transit alternative.

And Slater cautioned that rail-transit projects nationwide are experiencing big cost over-runs. He said they are averaging more than 44 percent, which could add $1 billion to $2 billion to the cost for a project like Hawai'i's.

Dela Cruz said the deadlines proposed by the council are realistic and will help to show how the different routes could affect their respective communities. He said the council has been asking the Hannemann administration for the planning on some of these developments for more than a year.

"They haven't met any deadlines that we've presented," Dela Cruz said. "Once you select the mode, you can begin to understand the community concerns and impacts."

Hamayasu has said the transit alternatives analysis will give council members the information they need to choose an alternative. "I'm focusing everything on meeting your deadline," he said.

City Councilman Todd Apo, part of the majority that has supported transit, said he doesn't think that the process has to take longer if the analysis being done includes the key answers.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.