With Oahu’s cash-strapped rail project stalled at Middle Street, Honolulu City Councilman Ikaika Anderson has suggested a way forward that he hopes will get the transit system past Ala Moana Center and as far as Manoa.

The path includes plenty of potential obstacles, however. Anderson’s proposal to move rail past its massive budget deficit, now estimated to be at least $1.5 billion, requires more help from rail’s federal partners and a state Legislature whose money chairwomen have already frowned at the notion of rail leaders approaching them next year for added funds.

It would also likely force a showdown over rail’s future among Anderson’s colleagues on the City Council because the idea directly challenges Chairman Ernie Martin’s stated position. Martin and Anderson have clashed over Council affairs in recent weeks.

“This decision is not a one councilmember-decision, regardless of the position held by one councilmember,” Anderson wrote in an Aug. 4 letter to the Federal Transit Administration. “All councilmembers have but one vote.”

In that Aug. 4 letter, Anderson asks whether the FTA would consider shortening rail’s route to Middle Street under its funding deal and then partner on an “extension” that runs as far as the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The line would run to the campus from Ala Moana Center.

It’s similar to an extension strategy that Mayor Kirk Caldwell said he’s discussed with the FTA as a possible way to complete rail to Ala Moana. “The FTA gives money for extensions all the time,” Caldwell told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s editorial board last month. FTA officials have deflected questions on whether the extension approach has worked elsewhere, saying they don’t want to compare Honolulu to different rail projects.

In his letter, Anderson also asks the federal agency whether it would extend the city’s Dec. 31 “recovery plan” deadline until after next year’s legislative session.

During the upcoming session, state lawmakers might be more inclined to help the island’s beleaguered transit project if they see that the FTA is willing to work with a rail line that runs all the way to UH, Anderson said.

“It is crucial that the Legislature be part of the discussion,” he said last week.

In 2015 state leaders approved a five-year extension of the general excise tax surcharge to help the rail project deal with cost overruns and get as far as Ala Moana Center. The extension is estimated to generate more than $1.5 billion for the project, and rail leaders at the time said that would likely be more than enough cash. Rising construction costs and utility relocation problems have helped drive the project at least $1.5 billion over budget since then.

During that session Caldwell asked the Legislature to consider approving a greater rail tax extension so that the city could keep building rail as far as downtown Kapolei and UH Manoa. Lawmakers including the state Senate’s Ways and Means Committee chairwoman, Jill Tokuda, told Caldwell that the city should finish the 20-mile, 21-station project it started first.

Martin has repeatedly stated his opposition to extending the state GET surcharge any further, saying that officials need to “stop the bleeding” on rail. In a May 20 letter to Caldwell and Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Board Chairwoman Colleen Hana- busa, Martin said that his opposition to a rail tax extension means that “going back to the Legislature for help is not an option.”

In a June 14 letter to the FTA, Martin said he supported stopping the project at Middle Street for now and that the city should complete the line to Ala Moana at some later time should the funding become available. At the time that Martin sent that letter, the Council faced a much tighter Aug. 7 deadline to submit its rail recovery plan.

Anderson, meanwhile, is saying that although Martin is the chairman, he doesn’t speak for all its members on rail — and perhaps not even a majority.

“There are councilmembers who support finishing the system as planned,” Anderson wrote in an email Thursday, “And … the Council Chair’s personal opinions should not be interpreted as the official positions of the entire Council.”

Anderson said he’s looking to introduce a resolution that would have the Council consider his proposals to solve rail’s funding woes. He said he’s still waiting to hear back from the FTA.

“I believe we have a fair chance at this,” he said Friday.

Anderson letter