Conspiracy or not, the public's love of their cars not withstanding ...

One thing that I notice is that where rail survived, it now thrives and carries more passengers than it ever did in the past, and is expanding. (Some California examples: San Francisco - San Jose Peninsula Commute (now Caltrain), San Francisco MUNI's streetcar/light rail operations.)

Where it was torn out, it is now being put back in. (Some California examples: streetcar/light rail operations in the Sacramento, San Jose, and Los Angeles areas; BART duplicating old SN and Key routes.) There are more trains now than ever before (even during the "Golden Age" of railroads!) between the Bay Area and Sacramento, the Bay Area and San Joaquin Valley, LA and San Diego, LA and Santa Barbara.

There is an irony here which colors my personal view of whether the ripping out of so much rail in the past was really reasonable and, if not reasonable, whether there were other (perhaps improper) factors involved.

Sorry for the ramble -- been too long a day!