For the first time since the August primary election, both candidate for Honolulu mayor faced off in a debate Wednesday night.

Ben Cayetano and Kirk Caldwell answered some tough questions the televised debate hosted by KITV and Civilbeat.com.

Just minutes into the debate, the jabs began.

"By the way Kirk, you should have known as a lawyer that the court would have needed a complete study," said Cayetano talking about the city's rail project.

"This is where Ben doesn't understand the relationships the mayor has with the council," said Caldwell.

But, as the 60-minute exchange went on, it was obvious what issue divided these two men.

"This is the real reason he's running.  It's a single issue -- kill rail," said Caldwell.

Caldwell criticized FAST -- Cayetano's $1.5 billion bus rapid transit solution to Honolulu's traffic woes.

"You can't really give us an accurate number and it's only two weeks before people start to vote," said Caldwell.  "We know that it's actually going to cost much, much more than just your figures of today.  Based on previously similar plans proposed by Panos [Prevedouros], who came up with these plans that you're talking about, an expert revealed the price tag would be somewhere between $2.5 billion and $3 billion."

PHOTOS: Honolulu Mayoral Debate

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