For 145 often-excruciating minutes, Katherine Henderson displayed the patience of Job — if he happened to be waiting at a railroad crossing as two freight trains passed in opposite directions.

But sometimes freight trains simply stop, leaving motorists on one side of the crossing looking through breaks in the cars at equally frustrated drivers on the other side. In those moments, even Job would be agitated.

Henderson and her fellow Red Line Regional Rail Project consultant, Mark Briggs, had already delivered a boxcar's worth of information — accompanied by 61 PowerPoint slides loaded with no less than 3,530 words — outlining the details of the proposed 25-mile commuter and freight line to the Davidson Town Board and a standing-room-only crowd Tuesday evening.

As often-misinformed (or under-informed) skeptics repeatedly took their shots disguised as questions, Henderson, in three-inch black heels, had gently rocked forward and back, as though she were doing lunges at the gym. She then would stop, leaving her dangling gold earrings to continue swinging on their own, and patiently addressed the questions.

But this time, the air pressure in the room seemed to shift.

Commissioner Laurie Venzon, looking for ways to counter the criticism of the Red Line she said she'd been getting from some constituents, offered a sample.

"Rail systems never pay for themselves," Venzon offered as one of the oft-repeated critiques.

Henderson inhaled and paused.

"Roads don't pay for themselves," said Henderson as she looked with red eyes through blue-rimmed eyeglasses in the direction of Venzon, but at no one in particular. "Airports don't pay for themselves. Ports don't pay for themselves."

For the first time during the Red Line briefing and accompanying public hearing, there was an edge to Henderson's comments. Her message was clear. Rail systems are a form of infrastructure, and infrastructure rarely is self-supporting, even if people pay to use it.

"To suggest that fares will pay for the cost of the (Red Line)," Henderson continued, "that will never happen."

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Henderson, Briggs and other Red Liners has been getting conventional thinkers to look differently at what has become an unconventional project. A case study in that dichotomy came just minutes after Henderson's who-pays-the-fare comments.

Vince Winegardner, who lost to John Woods in the Davidson mayoral race in November, asked repeatedly Tuesday night about the town's "share" of the project's $452 million price tag. When he returned to the subject a final time, he didn't get far.

"Looking at the proportionality ... ," he began.

"There is no proportionality!" Henderson, Briggs and Town Manager Leamon Brice interrupted as one.

"No?" a seemingly surprised Winegardner asked.

"No," the trio responded.

As proposed, Davidson and the other jurisdictions aren't on the hook for any share of the cost of the Red Line. Instead, revenue collected from transit-designated taxes in areas close to the rail line from Charlotte to Iredell County would be funneled through a single entity representing all jurisdictions involved. That means town and county lines are essentially irrelevant when it comes to funding the rail system.

That also means, the state's consultants have said repeatedly for weeks during the information dissemination process, the jurisdictions involved share no financial liability for the project, a point on which Briggs repeatedly hammered like it was a railroad spike, only to have another citizen ask about how cash-strapped Davidson could ever afford to one day bail out the Red Line, as it has had to do with MI-Connection, the debt-laden cable company co-owned by Davidson and Mooresville.

The risk, Briggs repeated, will lie with the private investors who front the money for the project and the contractors who take it on. And that's the way it should be, Briggs added, because governments are incapable of consistently meeting deadlines and budgets.

"The private sector will be told, 'You have $452 million to build it — period,'" Briggs explained. "It is totally their risk, and their risk alone. ... There will be no cost overruns because they have to deliver the project on time and on budget."

Which, on a public project, really would be unique, Briggs concluded.