A delegation of Raleigh officials rode Pat McCrory's pet project this week.

Sixty civic leaders and politicians traveled to Charlotte to ride the Lynx Blue Line, the 9.6-mile transit line a decade in the making that launched in November.

The $472 million trains have been packed with 12,000 riders a day so far, well above forecasts, Bruce Siceloff reports. It's already spurred new development expected to increase city property tax revenue by $8.5 million per year by 2011.

The project was applauded by leaders as diverse as state Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat, and Tony Gurley, a Republican on the Wake County board of commissioners. They also saluted the city—and McCrory's—efforts to defeat a repeal of the half-cent sales tax that funds the project.

"It was beautifully done—and, frankly, Wake County struggles with that," said Ross.

Still, McCrory rarely talks about the train—not to mention the tax—on the campaign trail in the Republican primary, perhaps because of fear of criticism from fiscal conservatives.