Why is it working there -- and not here?

The Triangle Transit Authority recently gave up its 11-year quest for federal money to build a 28-mile commuter train line through Raleigh, Research Triangle Park and Durham. That leaves the region without any plan for rapid transit.

Charlotte, meanwhile, is building a 10-mile, $427 million light rail line that will start running in November 2007.

The South Corridor is to be the first of five rapid-transit spokes radiating from uptown Charlotte, proposed in a 25-year, $3.9 billion plan to focus growth and economic development in the region.

Lucky timing helped Charlotte when it won final approval in May 2005 for the South Corridor. It would have flunked toughened federal standards for cost-effectiveness that took effect a week later.

The new standards helped sink TTA's plans. And they eventually could threaten some of Charlotte's long-term proposals to serve areas that might not have enough riders to justify the cost.

Even with its own challenges, Charlotte enjoys political, geographic and economic advantages over the Triangle. Some of these qualities help explain why one region is rolling ahead and the other has stopped dead in its tracks.

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory also faults TTA trustees for disregarding warnings from Washington for two years that the rail project would fail.

"The Raleigh system -- with all respect because they're friends of mine -- were delaying the inevitability of the numbers not working," McCrory said Wednesday at a meeting of Charlotte's transit board. "And they kept hoping. They were going on hope that the numbers would change."

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Q: Why did the TTA drop its proposal for federal funding to pay for 60 percent of its $810 million rail transit project?

A: The Federal Transit Administration had given high marks to TTA as it developed its plans over the past decade. But starting in 2004, the federal agency began raising alarms about soaring costs, weak local funding and shaky ridership forecasts.

None of these problems was solved over the next two years.

TTA cut four rail stations and seven miles of tracks from its plans. Costs fell but quickly rose again. The federal agency ordered an overhaul of a computer model used to predict Triangle traffic congestion and transit demand. A new report predicted only 10,200 daily train riders by 2030, half the number in earlier projections.

Q: Is Charlotte better suited than the Triangle for a rail transit network?

A: Most people would say yes.

Charlotte fits the hub-and-spoke model of most transit cities: One downtown work center pulls in commuters from outlying neighborhoods every morning and sends them home at night.

The Triangle's unusual layout presents more of a challenge. It has multiple work and cultural centers, including downtown Durham and Raleigh and N.C. State and Duke universities.

The region's biggest job center, Research Triangle Park, is in the middle. But RTP workers are spread out over wooded campuses and not easily served by a couple of train stations.

Q: How was local support a factor in Charlotte's success and the Triangle's failure?

A: It was easier to build support for transit in Charlotte -- with a central government and economic center -- than in the three-county Triangle.

Charlotte political and business leaders agreed in the 1990s to make rapid transit a central part of land-use planning. Their plan is to focus growth around five corridors and give commuters an alternative to cars and congestion.

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