Reporters from around the country were in Honolulu last week, trailing President Barack Obama. While they waited for him to finish his dinner at Alan Wong‘s or one of his many rounds of golf, they were figuring out what makes our town tick.

The New York Times today has a piece by veteran political reporter Adam Nagourney bringing the world up to speed on our controversial rail project. The headline is “After 40-Year Battle, Train May Roll for Oahu,” the dateline is KAPOLEI, and the story is accompanied by the photo above.

The usual suspects are quoted: Cliff Slater, Toru Hamayasu, Peter Carlisle, Panos Prevedouros, Donna Wong and Ben Cayetano.

To be sure, there’s nothing there that hasn’t already been covered in this space or elsewhere in local media. But for many readers outside of Hawaii, the Times is the newspaper of record for the world.

Now the Honolulu rail project is in there, black and white and read all over.