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Count Honolulu’s light-rail system among the transit projects chosen to obtain federal funding in the Obama Administration’s proposed fiscal-year 2011 transportation budget. The Hawaiian capital would receive $55 million for the project.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) plans to provide a total of $1.55 billion for the light-rail system through the New Starts program, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann said in a prepared statement. The FTA expects to arrange a Full Funding Grant Agreement with the city by the end of FY2011, he said.

The Honolulu Rail Transit project calls for building a 20-mile elevated light-rail line between East Kapolei and Ala Moana by 2019. The city expects to launch service on the first leg of the route between Kapolei and Pearl Highlands in 2012. The project also includes the construction of a train storage and maintenance facility in Waipahu.