A panel of experts has made its recommendation to the City of Honolulu leaders regarding which vehicle to use for Oahu's mass transit proposal.

Four of the five panelists chose steel wheel on steel rail mainly because of cost and reliability.

While it's estimated to cost $5 billion to build it's expected to be cheaper to maintain in the long run but not everyone agrees.

The panel does agree the transit won't eliminate traffic. All it hopes to do is slow the growth of traffic on Oahu.

"If things continue to go as they are now where you have limited road capacity and you don't have a higher level of transit service, there will come a point in time when the traffic congestion on the island in the major areas of the island will get so bad it will detract from the islands attractiveness to tourists, and people to continue living here in the environment," said Ron Tober, one of the five panelists. "So the investment is designed to continue to sustain economic growth but not choke the island in the process of doing it."

Four of the five panel members are from the mainland.

They agree the steel on steel transit is better than the other options which included a monorail, tires on concrete and magnetic levitation.

The one opponent on the panel lives in Hawaii and thinks all the options are bad.

"We're about to pay $5 billion which according to the city's alternative analysis says that in the year 2030 congestion will be worse. Why are we even spending it? Let it be worse all by itself because rail will at most remove three percent of the traffic. Five billion dollars to remove three percent of the traffic? We can do something else or do nothing with some patchwork and it's much more economical," said Panos Prevedouros, a panel member and professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Professor Prevedouros' thought was dismissed by the rest of the panel.

"We know the facts in real life. He knows the facts in book knowledge and in the world of teaching. I'm not teaching, I'm not preaching, I'm telling you the facts," said Steve Barsony, panelist.

Some city council members are skeptical of the panel's recommendation.

"It's obvious it's been predetermined with very little public involvement," said Donavan Dela Cruz.

And questions why the panelists were each paid $20,000 and an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii.

"It's wrong to allow an un-elected, unaccountable, largely of mainland experts to make the final decision on how to spend billions of taxpayer dollars," said Charles Djou.

The city council will discuss the issue at next Thursday's meeting.

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