As a former resident of the North Bay (over 10 years), though now elsewhere due to financial considerations (i.e. a place I could afford to both work and live!), I don't think SMART is, very. The potential passenger rail traffic there is tiny compared to the traffic on the freeway, and it'll stay that way until gas goes to $100/gallon. The DEIR I saw several years ago was sketchy in places, but consistent with a small-time operation on a freight line, not a serious passenger operation - but that was appropriate considering the potential traffic. Would be interesting to see some serious comparison with what GGT is currently carrying in buses (probably similar to the capacity of SMART?), and what GGT could do if they got some good, LA-style HOV lanes for the buses perhaps with a few dedicated on-freeway stations. Heretical suggestion: there is no place for passenger rail in the North Bay; the RR alignment south of Novato could easily be used for a bus lane in a few critical spots and a bike path elsewhere with more public benefit.

Given the likely scale of the SMART and NWP operations for a long time to come, there would be plenty of room for freight and plenty of time to add or lengthen a few sidings to keep things fluid. The number of trains mentioned in the various documents is a maximum that COULD occur over the working life (maybe 20-30 years) of the "project." The real problem is that (from some other posts here) it sounds like SMART wants to save a few pennies and use LRV technology (i.e. Sprinter like SD has in Escondido). That's dumb for anything more than a short branchline (SD's operation is only about 20 miles long) because FRA requires strict separation from freight rail. There are modern self-propelled commuter cars available (see South Florida) which, while more expensive, are much more flexible since they can share track with regular trains. Of course, regular commuter trains (Caltrain-variety) are available as stock orders from several builders and, while a bit slower of acceleration than the self-propelled stock are fully compatible with all standard RR operations (see Caltrain, again, and Metrolink in LA). IMO the LRV-type stuff only works where freight is insignificant in volume (again, see SD where freight and both diesel and electric LR share tracks but the freight runs only in the wee hours, maybe one train a day each way) or you can build a completely separate passenger line (parts of Sacramento where LR and freight are in the same corridor but don't connect).

The line from Napa-Sonoma-Novato-north would be better used as just a freight line, but in reality the cost of reactivating and maintaining it would probably be prohibitive for freight only so I really don't expect my heretical position to carry. SMART is needed to get serious public (transit) money for the real (not the current patchwork) rehab and upgrade.