[www.marinij.com]

The new term for SMART's long-delayed, long-promised, and now simply long opening is "soft launch". Contradiction in terms?

Four weeks ago it was practically promised the railroad would open with full service around June 8. This was arousing for the public in general eager for a ride on the train. Everyone was so excited. Then the next day the full schedule testing began and people started asking questions. Where were the trains? A few days later it was disclosed that SMART wasn't going to employ the full schedule. So now you have 1.5 hour gaps in the commute period morning and night. Reasons were shared for this inability for SMART to perform it's statutory duty as mandated by the enacting legislation. But these didn't not really make anyone happy.

Now there is a mandatory FRA audit wrapping up, but wait now there is a check of the PTC, and now the floating of the possibility of a soft launch. All of this coming after the refusal to start SMART last December over the malfunctioning engine issue. SMART at the time said they didn't want to do a "hard launch" and then have an engine malfunction in the first few weeks of service, which could really turn people off. It would be like showing up for a gunfight and your piece being loaded with blanks. Not useful and even dangerous to your long-term hopes for your genes to be passed on to posterity. Or to put it another way, it would be like launching a rocket to the moon and have it blow up all over the place right as you launch...embarrassing. So now we do a soft launch. No danger of a blow up now, and not much is promised really, and the expectations and even the desire for some railroadin' action have dimmed.

So it goes on the SMART...let's hope they find a way to bring some excitment back to their relationship with the Sonoma-Marin public!