Oahu’s mass transit rail project continues to shake up some Salt Lake residents. Now several opponents are letting their voices be heard.

Skip Gay has been living in Salt Lake since the 1950's, building a rail transit system in his backyard is something he never saw coming.

“They are supposed to be taking people to Pearl Harbor, Mokalapa, Hickam, Airport, Industrial and take them into town to work…that's what the traffic movement was supposed to be,” Gay said.

“There is no good reason why they are doing it in Salt Lake,” Gay said.

In December of 06 City Council members approved the 28 mile route from Kapolei to Manoa. In February of last year they voted to change the route moving away from the airport cutting through Salt Lake.

“If they’re by-passing the airport for now, you know when they do the second phase or whatever…third phase they going run them through Salt Lake they are defeating the purpose,” Gay said.

A purpose some say is to bring commuters from the west side into town and cut down traffic.

“I hope it would alleviate traffic, traffic is horrible around here,” an Oahu resident said.

Protesters gathered along Salt Lake Boulevard Sunday.

“Call Romy, kill rail,” protestors said.

Dan Douglass is a Salt Lake resident who is also concerned about rail.

“There's thousands of people, I would say even tens of thousands of people whose property values will be impacted,” Douglass said.

Douglass believes steel on steel technology will bring added noise.

“Every three minutes at peak times that's how often this train is going to pass by our neighborhood,” Douglass said.

A representative for Parsons Brinkerhoff, the rail planning and engineering firm, met with concerned residents to discuss noise concerns...his studies showed the rail system would only raise the level of sound by one dba.

“Which I am skeptical of,” Douglass said.

A dba measures sound levels...a busy roadside comes in at 80 dba.

Preliminary research shows the rail system is estimated to sound off at around 61-69 dba.

Romy Cachola, who represents Salt Lake on the City Council was unavailable for comment.

The City Council will vote Wednesday to finalize their decision on which rail technology to use.
The public is welcome to testify before the council prior to the vote.