NO RESEARCH TRIANGLE SPRINTER. Newmark's Door has been no fan of a proposed light rail project in Greater Raleigh. The proposal, which appears to be to operate diesel multiple unit cars on existing tracks, has been cancelled account reality checks in the ridership projections and rising costs for the additional tracks and buildings, reflecting global economic growth. The freight railroads, themselves straining under additional intermodal and coal traffic, and more than a few loose cars bringing building materials to the Triangle, saw the project as an opportunity to obtain additional tracks, an agreement that Metra was willing to make with Union Pacific and CN to expand service to Elburn and Antioch, but those were expansions of existing commuter railroads serving a traditional metropolitan area, which the Triangle is not.

I'm surprised the Door didn't post a thesis on the transit authority's use of the sunk cost fallacy.

"Given the investment we've made in rail to date, I think that should ... still be the priority," said Durham Mayor Bill Bell, a TTA trustee. "The main question is probably how to replace the federal funds."

Sometimes, it is efficient to cut your losses.

Live from the Third Rail offers a somewhat different perspective, although it seems a bit churlish to criticize people for wanting some green space between their house and their neighbours.

Meanwhile, conservatives in this relatively moderate state have been able to take advantage of the long, drawn-out process to exploit the plan's vulnerabilities, notably its escalating costs, need for land acquisition, and inability to serve all of the region's centers, most importantly (to them), the airport. Their shrill and misguided criticism has focused on the fact that the line would cost thousands of dollars for each rider it would serve, and they have emphasized the fact that North Carolina's citizens seem to prefer living in a sprawled-out environment.

Transit advocates would do better to consider adapting their technologies to what people want, rather than coming off like noodgy parents insisting that their children eat their broccoli.

Most politicians, including the two senators, have bought full-heartedly the concept that North Carolinians simply don't like density, ignoring the reality that density is impossible without strong mass transit opportunities. No one remembers that New York City's Upper West Side was back-country before the first subway line was completed in 1904.

And it pays to study history. Sure, there are plenty of pictures of New York elevated lines over prairies now built up, but there are also plenty of pictures of houses in Muskego and Hales Corners and Pewaukee and Mequon and Northbrook and Batavia that went up long after the Milwaukee Electric and the North Shore and the Chicago Aurora & Elgin sold the tracks for scrap. The Triangle is less thickly settled than either Milwaukee or Chicago, and yes, we're looking into ways to put some of the trains back, but the ones we had were marginal to the transportation system.