Foes: trolley takes taxpayers for a ride.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler

You can tell it's the Charlotte trolley. Instead of clang, clang, it goes ka-ching, ka-ching: Fifteen years after it was started as a nonprofit enterprise needing little or no public money, the line will cost taxpayers more than $33 million. And they'll have to cough up at least $3 million to buy cars to run on it.

Transit officials had counted on using two antique cars, already restored and running a light schedule, to begin full-time service this summer. But they're too rickety for everyday use, so regular service can't begin until at least next year. "Are we asleep at the throttle or what?" grumbles Tony Pressley, a developer who led the revitalization of South End, once a crumbling industrial district adjacent to downtown. "Let's get on with this."

The trolley is now a tourist excursion, running weekends and lunchtime. Boosters say developers have pumped close to $400 million into South End in anticipation of it. Those properties, which once generated $240,000 a year in taxes, bring in $4.2 million, says Ron Tober, head of Charlotte Area Transit System, which will take over the line July 1.

Critics retort that South End renewal predates the trolley. "Stupid" is how St. Louis transportation consultant Wendell Cox, hired by foes to study transit spending, describes the project. "These things are routinely sold low so towns get committed. The...