It *was* a group of monkeys. AKA our state and local politicians, their friends, staff, consultants, and contributors, over a couple of decades. Someday the real story will come out, and it probably won't be pretty. Lawyers and planners will use it in their textbooks.

There were plans early on for moving Amtrak out near the platforms, essentially resurrecting the Sacramento station of the late 1800s. At one point, there was a semi-serious proposal to actually move the existing (brick) station building out there. That didn't happen for all sorts of good reasons, but the tracks moved. It was partly for operational reasons - the tracks for the old station had a sharp S-curve at the east end, the platforms didn't have the services (fuel, etc.) needed for terminal use, and the freight bypass that used the new-station alignment disappeared many years ago after I-5 was built so freight trains had to crawl through the station at 5 mph or so. But the real reason was for the railyards development project - among other things so the 5th & 6th Street bridges could be built for access to the main development area. There's still a vague plan to realign the light rail station so it connects better with the new Amtrak setup. Probably would also need to move the bus arrangements, etc. Chronic issues, of course, with lackamunny as well as having had to replace developers at least once. IOW the standard large urban renewal project that got hit by the triple whammy of hazmat cleanup (you name it, the shops/yard had it, and still does to some extent), the recession(s) (this has been going on so long that it was affected by the dot.com bust as well as the more recent crash), and Jerry shutting down the redevelopment game.

The original development plans had all sorts of glitz for the area near the station building that wasn't compatible with train tracks - including an arena which has since moved into downtown proper. What's happening now isn't abundantly clear, except that the bridges to nowhere (they were built over the new tracks along with the station platforms, but no approach fills, so for about 3 years they stood there unreachable except by the taggers) are now almost ready to open; work started again about a year ago. So there obviously are post-arena plans for the area. Apparently a "Public Market" might be part of that.