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"It's a guarantee that in certain corridors, employees can get to work in a guaranteed amount of time," McCrory said in an interview. "Not just next year, but 30 years from now. And that's a guarantee employers are going to start looking for."

McCrory, a Republican who has been mayor since 1995, and Democrat Parks Helms, now chairman of the Mecklenburg County commissioners, teamed up in 1998 to push for a half-cent local sales tax to help finance transit improvements. They sold the idea to the legislature, then to Mecklenburg County voters. The sales tax generated $65 million last year. It has enabled Charlotte to double its bus fleet and add new routes. And it will cover 28 percent of the South Corridor rail tab.

The TTA rail line was proposed as the first leg of a network that would reach from North Raleigh to Chapel Hill. But the future phases were never fleshed out. Residents of the three counties generally regarded the 28-mile line as the only thing planned.

Triangle legislators balked at a sales tax in 1998. They compromised on a 5 percent tax on car rentals, which returned just $7 million last year for the rail project. TTA netted another $5 million from a $5 car registration fee for bus and ridesharing services.

TTA has enjoyed close ties with Durham and Orange political leaders, who helped create the agency in 1989 and served on its board for years. Wake County is home to a bigger share of potential riders, but its elected officials have not joined the TTA board.

After recent turnover on the Raleigh City Council and the Wake Board of Commissioners, there are few Wake leaders in office today who helped start TTA -- or even remember how it started.

Q: What's happening now with transit plans in the Triangle and in Charlotte?

A: The TTA setback had repercussions last week in Charlotte.

On Wednesday, McCrory warned his fellow Mecklenburg mayors against repeating TTA's mistakes. The Triangle project was doomed in 2004, and TTA leaders should not have waited two years to acknowledge that the numbers were against them, he said.

TTA failed to face "pragmatic realities," he said.

"They are going to have to go back to the drawing table," McCrory said. "It's going to take them some years of credibility to build back up and to start a new plan."

For all the rivalry between North Carolina's two booming metropolitan centers, McCrory took no joy in the Triangle's setback. He cited TTA in a debate over plans for a 13-mile transit line through east Charlotte to the suburb of Matthews.

Some Charlotte transit board members backed a $585 million light-rail proposal. It was the overwhelmingly popular choice, but the numbers indicated that it would flunk the federal standard for cost-effectiveness.

Less popular, but more likely to gain federal approval, was a $320 million plan for bus rapid transit service instead. Deluxe, trainlike buses would scoot ahead of rush-hour traffic in exclusive lanes called "busways."

Other board members favored delaying action until some time when light-rail numbers might look better.

McCrory said that Charlotte would lose credibility if it followed TTA's example by pushing a rail project shown to be costly and inefficient. "I encourage us not to do that," McCrory said. "Let's go with our best instincts, with the numbers and the experts."

The board postponed its vote for 30 days.

Q: What do TTA leaders say about criticism that they were too slow to face reality?

A:Carter Worthy of Raleigh, TTA board chairman since 2004, and John Claflin, general manager since 2003, declined to comment on McCrory's criticism. Wib Gulley, a former Durham legislator who helped found TTA and now serves as its counsel, said McCrory was off-base.

"Any suggestion that we were not dealing with hard numbers and the reality of the process is just misplaced," Gulley said. "We met in January with leading folks from the Federal Transit Administration, and they were encouraging us to continue to work with the [computer transportation forecast] model."

The federal agency said it was considering several rule changes that might have credited TTA with more favorable cost-benefit numbers, Gulley said. But it never made those changes.

Triangle mayors and TTA trustees agreed last week to take a fresh look at the region's transportation needs and possible transit solutions. TTA leaders said they still thought trains were the right choice. They consoled themselves at a meeting Wednesday with picture books about "The Little Engine That Could."

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