No question that was a raw political power play by Honolulu Councilman Romy Cachola last week to force a transit route through the heavily populated Salt Lake area he represents.

In fact, just about everything about the City Council's latest move on transit was steeped in politics. And there's bound to be more of the same when the council returns to the subject on Tuesday.

But politics aside, Cachola has strong arguments, some practical and some populist, in support of his insistence that a transit line go through Salt Lake rather than past Pearl Harbor and the Honolulu International Airport as had been proposed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann and his administration.

The plain fact is that the first segment of the transit system, if it is ever approved and built, will be not much more than a foot in the door on what is eventually envisioned as a major system running from deep in the booming community of Kapolei all the way to the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, with a possible spur to Waikiki if residents and businesses there say they want it.

The logic of the airport route was that it would serve local residents who work at or near the airport and would provide a convenient transportation system for arriving and departing airline passengers.

But who, precisely, would those passengers be?

Not tourists for the most part, since the planned transit system doesn't go into Waikiki and may never do so. Not most local residents, unless they happen to live close to the line and are not burdened with excessive luggage. It's a good bet that even if a transit line runs past the airport (and it may still do so in phase II, III or IV), most local folks will continue to drive to the airport or get dropped off right at the check-in facility.

The airport link makes sense only when there is a people-mover system to get people from the transit line into the terminal in a convenient way and when the line serves the tourist center of Waikiki.

Cachola's other argument, of course, is a populist one. If we are going to spend all this money, he asks, shouldn't it be spent first to serve local residents rather than tourists? Truth is, all infrastructure serves both residents and tourists, but this kind of argument will play well back home in the district.

In the end, Cachola's power play (if he had held back his vote, the entire project would have died) was matched by the mayor's willingness to cut a political deal to keep the entire transit project alive. He knows as well as anyone that previous transit projects have died at the last minute because of a faltering political will in the council. He was determined not to let that happen this time around.

So Hannemann and Cachola sat down and made an arrangement. The transit line, at least for the moment, would drive right through the heart of Cachola's district. And the five votes necessary to move this on to the next stage would be secure.

But for how long?

When the council meets Tuesday, there will be more talk, more debate and perhaps other ideas on the table. All it will take is for one council member to lose patience with this and the entire project could go down in flames once more.

Reach Jerry Burris at jburris@honoluluadvertiser.com.