I think the reason for the reduced schedule is that they do not have enough crew. The last general managers report shows they have at least one open engineer conductor position. The SMART chief financial officer mentioned at a recent board meeting that they were having a hard time recruiting qualified people from out of state due to the high cost of housing in Sonoma and Marin. I have also heard this in other online forums. One rumour was that some of the engineer / conductors they recruited moved back out of state, citing high housing costs as a reason for leaving. I think this is another cause of delays that the SMART staff and board does not mention.

I happily migrated to Santa Rosa from the Midwest fresh out of undergrad 17 years ago. Rent for a 1 bedroom was ~$1,000, and I had sticker shock then. I can only imagine what new arrivals think today.