With electric light rail tech building south to Marin City can be done with a reasonable price tag and relatively quickly - in the typical time frame of modern transit railway construction snail pace. Recall that by 1915 one could travel from NYC to Chicago exclusively on traction lines. Quite an accomplishment between 1888 and 1915.

But you have to ditch the freight. Of course you could double track between Novato and Petaluma; build a SMART high level bridge paralleling the freeway bridge over the Petaluma River and then a SMART viaduct in Petaluma thru the CVS parking lot. Ergo 2 totally segregated lines as the only business AFAIK for the NWP is the grain elevators at Dairymens Feed and Hunt & Behrens. Eventually the NWP will dry up and blow away. All you need is some money. But then SMARTbugs with 2 man operation will need lotsa subsidy too, forever. And still no service to southern Marin where the patronage potential resides.

In a decade Jerry and crowd will be gone and the still standing insiders will wake up and decree we need a line to the City. And all the cadres and all the crony consultant-contractor-supplier feeders will snap to attention.