Panel: rail is still the ticket.

Nearly two years ago, when it dropped its bid for federal funding of a 28-mile, $810 million commuter-train line, the Triangle Transit Authority made it clear that the project had been sidetracked, not derailed. Increased global demand for concrete and steel had jacked up the cost, and changes in federal requirements made money harder to get.

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In February, regional rail crept back onto the main line of public debate--bigger and pricier than ever. An advisory panel put together by planning organizations representing Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, among others, recommended a 56-mile system as part of a transportation package that would include a tripling of bus service and cost an estimated $2 billion, says George Cianciolo, a Duke University pathologist and co-chairman of the 29-member advisory panel. TTA operates 68 buses between Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.

A shortcoming of the old rail plan, according to the feds, was that the proposed line between Durham and Raleigh, with a stop in Research Triangle Park, wouldn't serve enough riders. "There was nothing in between, so it wasn't a high-ridership corridor," Cianciolo says. Routes between Chapel Hill and Durham or Cary and north Raleigh might be better candidates for phase one. "I'm not predicting what's going to get built first, but it's probably safe to say it's going to be a corridor that has high density and high-ridership numbers."

Finding the money might be tough, though. One oft-mentioned source would be a local sales tax. That faces some high hurdles--approval by the General Assembly and three sets of county commissioners or, if stated in the bill, voters in three counties.

Joe Bryan, a Republican who chairs the Wake County Board of Commissioners, worries that the project might be too big, too costly and too dependent on local money. It's not his top priority. "I love education more than I do transportation. I'm held responsible for education and not for transportation." He's impressed with the light-rail line recently built in Charlotte and noticed the public support given it by top business leaders. "If there is buy-in to this plan, there need to be champions that say, 'We need this for our business to stay here and to grow here, and we are demanding and expecting that.'"

If community leaders decide that the region needs rail, Cianciolo says, it's better to do it sooner rather than later. "It's probably never going to get much cheaper to build something like this."