Warning, excessively long post...

There's just a whiff of disinformation floating around regarding SMART here over the last few days. Is there a sense of panic developing among the train haters over possible actual start of service next year? In any case, it would be helpful if somebody (like Mike P) who has a clue what's happening could post what's in fact happening. Based on the various news things posted here and elsewhere, and perusing a bit of (not very up to date) Google stuff, it looks to me like:

Construction on the initial segment (San Rafael to Airport) is winding down. A few loose ends still need to be tied up, but not much. Are there actually still issues in San Rafael or not (the phantom posters seem to bring things up that would have been settled long before construction started if applied to the first phase)?

Due to a failure found elsewhere, engines in the cars are being replaced. Better to do it now than wait for failures to happen here.

Still seem to be some teething problems in the signals. That's an important issue, and needs to be fixed soonest. But it's not a fundamental problem with SMART, just with one aspect of construction. Punch list, but a big item.

As expected for the Bay Area, there have been some staffing problems. Public agencies can't pay enough for people to live near where they work. Not a problem exclusive to SMART. Only way to fix that, frankly, is to build much more housing (which the NIMBYs won't allow) or a massive economic crash or other reason for a huge exodus of population from the Bay Area (which would be bad for SMART too).

Extension from downtown San Rafael to Larkspur, appears to now be funded. True? If so, some of the stranger posts may be a FUD campaign to block that. Who has land or other interests between downtown and the tunnel that might be affected by resurrecting use of those tracks? Who would benefit by making wild claims about things that aren't part of the project? What's the story with this phase - Mike P?

Finally, the concept: SMART is not BART or anything close to it. It isn't and wasn't intended to be. It's a local commute train, which with extension to Larkspur will also provide an alternative combined with the ferry for a modest number of SF commute trips. It'll never, as with most transit (rail or otherwise) carry enough traffic to make a detectable difference in congestion on 101, but it will provide an alternative to sitting in that traffic for people working in the Santa Rosa-San Rafael corridor.

And forget about extending SMART into southern Marin. That's truly wishful thinking, if not outright FUD intended to panic the NIMBYs so they'll further attack the SMART that exists. Ain't.Gonna.Happen. To the extent any of the southern Marin NWP r/w is used for transportation, it is and will continue to be for bike/ped lanes and occasionally for improved roads. Yes, reopening the Alto Tunnel for bike/ped use would be a Good Thing, though given the current political climate (outside of California, where the money would have to come from) I'd expect studies to be as far as the scheme goes for a long time.

Enough with the dreary comments. Reality sometimes is like that. I do look forward to SMART actually starting operations, and might even run over there for a look at the olde digs from a new perspective. Isn't that part of railfanning? And given other areas' experiences, I suspect SMART will find itself needing more capacity a lot sooner than they expected.