Former Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano and other plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit that aims to stop Honolulu’s rail project filed their opening brief in their appeal to 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

It’s 3,785 pages with attachments.

The opening brief itself is much shorter. Only 119 pages.

In general, the plaintiffs say the city didn’t do a proper alternatives analysis when studying the rail project. Specifically, they say the city and the Federal Transit Administration ignored managed lanes, street-level light rail and bus rapid transit.

The appeal is to a November 2012 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima, who essentially said the city can proceed with the rail project once it cleans up issues pertaining to pre-construction studies, such as accounting for cultural and historical resources.

The 9th Circuit granted the plaintiffs an expedited hearing that’s currently scheduled for August.

They wanted the case heard sooner rather than later because construction on the $5.26 billion project is set to start up again in September.

—Nick Grube