Q: Is rail still a possibility for the Triangle in the foreseeable future or is the idea dead?

A: I absolutely think rail is a possibility. The genesis for the rail project was the early '90s to the mid-'90s, so it's been awhile since we asked the question completely fresh: "What should we be doing to ensure that we are able to get around with these hundreds of thousands of additional people we expect in these counties before 2030?" And it will be interesting to find out what people's thoughts are on on that subject, but I think rail is certainly an option. I think it's also possible that we will hear some interest in more robust rubber tire arrangements. But we hope to listen more than we talk so that people have an opportunity to put their ideas forward. I would predict that there will be a lot of folks who still think some form of rail-based transit is at least part of the solution.

Q: Are you starting from scratch or is there a possibility of resurrecting the original plan?

A: You've got a substantial body of work there. You've got a relationship with the North Carolina Railroad around that corridor, which after all does parallel I-40, which is the principal highway spine in the Triangle. You've got stations that have been discussed, debated and sited based on those conversations with local governments and with some idea about spacing involved. You've got property around some of those stations, and some of these station sites are obvious generators and attractors of trips -- state government complex, N.C. State University, Research Triangle Park, downtown Durham, downtown Cary, the state fairgrounds -- you've got places where people want to go. So if you've got property, and you've a got rail line that connects those places, and you've got a body of work that has taken place to look at exactly how you can serve those places, it would be foolish to throw that away. But it would be foolish to stop your view of the art of the possible with just what has been done. We need to be more expansive than that.

Q: Where would the money come from to be more expansive?

A: The first question is what do we want to do, then you ask how much would it cost to do that, and then you ask is it possible to stage that activity over a period of years. It may be we can start small and build as we add on the next most valuable investment we can make.

We have some local funding. One of our issues around here is that that source of funding is not nearly as healthy as our friends' in Charlotte. Their local funding source is a half-cent sales tax, which generates about $60 million a year. Our rental vehicle tax generates between $7 and $8 million a year, so there's quite a difference. You can be a lot bolder if you're looking toward a $60 million local source of revenue, plus you have more credibility with other funding partners, including the federal government, if you've got a strong source of local revenue.

Q: It's pretty obvious that we're going to need to go to some other source of revenue.

A: It's pretty obvious we're going to have to be creative. One of the things I think I sense -- and once I have done my first round of listening, perhaps 90 or 120 days from now I will have a much better sense of this -- but I think I perceive it already, and that is that folks in leadership in the political and business community in the Triangle believe we've got to do something, and they're not convinced the project that was put forward is the right thing, but they know there is something out there we need to collectively define and articulate and then go sell to the public and figure out how to pay for. But I'm not sure everybody believes we've discovered what that thing looks like yet.

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