Follow the history. In 1964 the part of the NWP you are referring to was utterly destroyed and the SP spent quite a bit of money at the time to reconstruct. They did it because there was considerable business that justified the investment. Jump forward 20 years and the traffic evaporated. The Masonite factory in Ukiah, for example, is long gone now.

There is going to be an agonizing reappraisal of expenditures across the board. Thus if the Feds reduce Amtrak spending California will have to step in to save what's important.. Amtrak in California is lightyears more useful than NCRA/NWP.

You can blame it on Trump if that makes you feel better but belt-tightening is happening everywhere. It is a simple cost benefit analysis. In France right now the new supposed centrist government has "discovered" a huge deficit left behind by the Hollande socialist regime. Ergo hated austerity returns, with the government employees getting their pay frozen once again.

Interestingly the Donald will be at the Bastille Day celebration with Emmanuel Macron, who indicates he wants to give priority to urban transit with its big passenger numbers at the expense of longer distance. Sound familiar? Jerry's transport legacies and spending will be politically re-evaluated once he is safely gone.