Bob2:

"Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment."

Old line that perhaps explains your clearer view of things.

SoCal needs better rail service, and incrementally is getting it through slow-motion LOSSAN implementation and Metrolink tweaks. The bigger projects, like Union Station, need outside help. Outside help means Real Politics so those projects are at the mercy of current trends - which outside of California are now overwhelmingly against passenger rail (and both bus and rail transit for that matter). Could be an interesting 2 years.

NorCal needs better conventional rail service too, but doesn't seem to have the political and planning clout to figure it out so far. Cap Corridor service isn't bad, but sharing with UP freight especially in speed-constrained areas will probably limit it to near what's running now. San Joaquin service is barely better than basic accommodation, which is too bad because it's almost competitive for in-Valley and Sacramento/LA runs now (faster than the Starlight to LA, though not from the Bay Area). That's not good enough; things need to be faster (though probably not HSR in the foreseeable future) and more frequent to be truly competitive with driving. And like the San Clemente stretch in SoCal there are several places where NorCal services need plans to deal with sea level rise. Where's a LOSSAN-like long-range plan for the area?

And yes, having a highly-visible advocate go whacko doesn't help matters at all.