CHARLOTTE - A shiny blue train lured a 60-member delegation from Raleigh to the Queen City this week, but the daylong junket included only a few minutes for a short ride on the rails.

The trip was less about transportation than about politics and business, which in Charlotte are pretty much the same thing.

Raleigh civic leaders and politicians went to learn the secret of Charlotte's recent, stunning success in expanding transit service -- a realm where Triangle officials have faltered and hope to regain their footing this year.

Charlotte has enjoyed resounding support from commuters, voters and real estate investors for a bus and rail expansion campaign that began a decade ago and reached a milestone in November with the launch of a 9.6-mile light-rail line through a revitalized warehouse district on the city's south side.

Despite early glitches with ticket machines, the $472 million Lynx trains have been packed with more than 12,000 riders a day so far, well above forecasts.

Developers have poured money into the corridor since 2005, surrounding rail stops with a mix of shops, offices and condominiums in compact neighborhoods expected to top $1.8 billion in new development by 2011.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected a call in November, by a 70-to-30 margin, to repeal a special half-cent sales tax that generates $70 million a year for new buses and future rail lines.

State Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat, congratulated Mecklenburg officials on building popular support for the transit sales tax.

"It was beautifully done -- and, frankly, Wake County struggles with that," Ross told Ron Tober, who recently retired as director of Charlotte's transit agency. "I think we could learn a lot from you about how to get that bipartisan support."

Triangle city and county officials are preparing this year to debate ambitious proposals for bus, rail and streetcar projects that could cost $6 billion over the next three decades. Since 2006, when the federal government pulled the plug on an $810 million Durham-to-Raleigh rail link, Triangle leaders have been skittish about prospects for any kind of big transit plan.

John Lassiter, a member of Charlotte's city council, said local Democrats, Republicans and corporate chiefs agreed in the 1990s that taxpayer investment in public transit is good for economic development, good for business and, therefore, good for Charlotte.

"Republicans elected here, and I'm one of them, are much more progressive in their philosophy about infrastructure and economic development," Lassiter told his Wake County audience, "than perhaps some of the folks that serve your community -- who are more ideological.

"And that allows us to work hand in glove with the business community to address needs and get broader support."

Lassiter's visitors warmed to his message.

Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley, a Raleigh Republican, said he was impressed by the surge of transit-oriented development expected to boost South Corridor property taxes by $24 million a year.

He said he'll keep that in mind when the three-county Special Transit Advisory Commission produces its transit proposals at the end of February -- and asks for new taxes to pay for them.

"A good transit plan will stimulate economic development," Gurley said in an interview. "I don't expect the transit plan to create a significant reduction in traffic on the roads. That won't be my only way of judging the quality of the plan."

Municipal and county officials from Wake, Durham and Orange counties asked the 29-member advisory group for a fresh look at the region's long-term transit needs. The group will propose projects to be phased in over the next 30 years.

Wake Commissioner Betty Lou Ward, a Raleigh Democrat, said Wake should follow Mecklenburg's lead. If the county receives a good transit proposal, Ward would favor asking voters to approve a local sales tax increase to help pay for it.

"I think it would be a perfectly wonderful way to go," Ward said of the sales tax option. "The bottom line is that as our population increases, the roads don't get much wider, and we get stacked up in traffic."

Unlike Charlotte's political and corporate leaders, who have learned to speak with one voice, the visitors from Raleigh still had issues to resolve. Joseph Sansom, a director of Raleigh-based Mechanics and Farmers Bank, said low-income black residents were not ready for an increase in the sales tax.

"It's a regressive tax, especially to those who are less affluent," Sansom said after stepping off the Lynx train at the Tyvola Road stop. "It takes a greater percentage of their income, even if it is a penny."

Black voters will wait to see what the new transit plan has to offer them.

"Now, if it's not going to service the black community, we won't have a buy-in with it," Sansom said. "But if it's going to provide us a service, I think it's well worth looking at a proposal."