diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py
index d461c35ab5..59ce9c2e70 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ class PlayBook(object):
             setup_cache=self.SETUP_CACHE, basedir=task.play.basedir,
             conditional=task.only_if, callbacks=self.runner_callbacks,
             sudo=task.play.sudo, sudo_user=task.play.sudo_user,
-            transport=task.play.transport, sudo_pass=self.sudo_pass, is_playbook=True
+            transport=task.transport, sudo_pass=self.sudo_pass, is_playbook=True
         )
 
         if task.async_seconds == 0:
diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/task.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/task.py
index 09d5446a13..55d5a80ceb 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/task.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/task.py
@@ -26,14 +26,14 @@ class Task(object):
         'notify', 'module_name', 'module_args', 'module_vars',
         'play', 'notified_by', 'tags', 'register', 'with_items', 
         'delegate_to', 'first_available_file', 'ignore_errors',
-        'local_action'
+        'local_action', 'transport'
     ]
 
     # to prevent typos and such
     VALID_KEYS = [
          'name', 'action', 'only_if', 'async', 'poll', 'notify', 'with_items', 
          'first_available_file', 'include', 'tags', 'register', 'ignore_errors',
-         'delegate_to', 'local_action'
+         'delegate_to', 'local_action', 'transport'
     ]
 
     def __init__(self, play, ds, module_vars=None):
@@ -60,10 +60,11 @@ class Task(object):
         # Only one of them is defined
         elif 'local_action' in ds:
             self.action      = ds.get('local_action', '')
-            self.delegate_to = '127.0.0.1'
+            self.transport   = 'local'
         else:
             self.action      = ds.get('action', '')
             self.delegate_to = ds.get('delegate_to', None)
+            self.transport   = ds.get('transport', play.transport)
 
         # notified by is used by Playbook code to flag which hosts
         # need to run a notifier