Support for the city’s controversial $5.3 billion rail project has grown since voters first agreed to build a steel-on-steel transit system in November 2008.

Four years ago voters approved the ballot question on rail by 4.9 percent. In Tuesday’s general election that margin grew to 7.7 percent, as pro-rail mayoral candidate Kirk Caldwell secured a convincing victory against former two-term Democratic governor and rail opponent Ben Cayetano.

”You have my total commitment to work hard every single day on all the issues,” Caldwell, 60, told an enthusiastic crowd of hundreds during his victory speech at Aloha Tower.

The former state representative, who also served a two-month stint as acting mayor, also promised to work on city infrastructure issues like roads and sewers and to “build rail better.”

During the final months of the campaign, Caldwell told voters he wanted to design the elevated rail system in a more historically or visually sensitive fashion, especially through downtown and Honolulu's waterfront.

Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who is critical of rail, but has supported the project in a majority of votes, viewed Caldwell’s promise as a pledge to mitigate impacts to Honolulu’s view planes. 

"I hope that means that we won't have this elevated rail going past Aloha Tower and through the center of downtown," said Kobayashi.
In his concession speech, Cayetano, 72, vowed to keep tabs on Caldwell as the rail project progresses.

“I wish Kirk a lot of luck, I think he's going to need it,” said Cayetano. “I think we should hold him accountable for all the promises that he made.”

Although making changes to the rail line remains a possibility, any drastic alterations could impact environmental clearances, like the project’s final environmental impact statement.

“I think the issue is how much of a change we can make without redoing some of the EIS issues,” said Councilman Breene Harimoto, a staunch rail supporter.  “I'm really happy that Kirk Caldwell will be here, and together we can work through some of the issues.”  

Even though he lost the mayor’s race, Cayetano could still delay construction of the rail project further. Cayetano is among a group of plaintiffs who filed a federal lawsuit against the city to see whether the rail project followed federal environmental laws.