That's a rap for rail, for now

Those wonderful folks at the Triangle Transit Authority may not be giving up their dream of a railroad carrying commuters between inner Raleigh and inner Durham, but they do appear to be backing off.

For one thing, it is reported, TTA wouldn't mind if some other entity took the rap -- er, took the point -- for railroading the commuting public.

Can't blame 'em there. After 11 years boosting a concept that dwindled in scope as it skyrocketed in price, TTA was coming to resemble Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the former Iraqi spokesman famed for denying the reality of televised infidel troops in Baghdad.

For another thing, though, TTA has given up on Santa Claus -- recognizing that the U.S. giv'ment isn't going to come through with $486 million or so for a train set serving two points of the Triangle.

To pick up the tab -- which goes up every time China or India orders another ton of steel or concrete -- TTA is thinking now of private enterprises. Such a thought must gratify persons of business, such as those TTA has put out of business because their private enterprises were in the way of TTA's hypothetical railroad stations.

Meanwhile, TTA is extending its eminent domain. Uncertain future or not, it's going ahead with condemnations it had already begun for its exercise in social engineering.

And you thought it was all about getting cars off I-40?

TTA's rail plan is, at heart, a self-fulfilling hope. Commuter trains running along the N.C. Railroad corridor don't do a bit of good for commuters in burgeoning southern Durham, who would have as long a trip to a train station as they would to an office in the Park.

Nor do they help commuters in Treyburn, Hardscrabble, Clayton or Knightdale. Much less Chapel Hill, or the airport patrons whose rental-car taxes go to subsidize the railroad that leaves them sidetracked.

To be of use, the rail system would have to generate a market of its own through dense residential growth with easy access to its tracks.

That's been part of the plan all along, and some is happening, for instance in central Durham. Even so, the projected population in town is minuscule compared to that in the suburbs. And rising real-estate values in downtowns are what push people farther and farther out to live in the first place.

Barring a sea change in taste, countering the residential trend of a century and a half, more people are still going to want to live out of town than in it. The appeal of a warehouse condo and semi-urban streetlife is, face it, somewhat limited.

Yet, it appears, it's private developers of just such properties that TTA now hopes will pick up its slack. No wonder it would like the city planning groups to take over fronting for the cause.

Maybe it's time for TTA to take a cue from Greyhound.

It's such a comfort to take the bus ...