UPDATED: The model for how to handle transit security varies from place to place. Honolulu considered using HPD but went a different route.

Saturday's drill was a step toward rail going operational. Questions remain on some of the structural cracking, however.

Rail's top executive said her agency has already fixed the problems with so-called "frogs" and it's an old issue being dredged up.

HART dismissed the worries of a former track consultant as "the opinions of one individual." A newly released memo indicates he's not alone.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi called the development a "joyous and a historic day for us."

UPDATED: If, by now, "we have not learned how to build rail, then we have no right to do so," Colleen Hanabusa told the FTA.

The Honolulu rail agency said the losing bid, at $900 million, received a "significantly lower" score.

It's not clear, however, whether the project's latest pier-cracking woes would force HART to repeat the trial running sometime later.

Rail officials tried to get this work done under a prior contract. They say this new deal will finally solve one of the project's biggest obstacles.

Consultants and structural engineers are still assessing just how serious the cracking is in the piers that support several West Oahu stations.