I do not believe the NWP is viable either, but it is obvious that the controversy will only be settled by a real world test. Clearly there is a contingent convinced that it can reopen successfully. All the Novato lawsuit accomplishes is delaying the experiment, a total mistake.

This is an extremely murky issue. The spearhead of the opposition to SMART are highway advocates. A regular columnist in the local Petaluma paper was decent enough to come out in his anti-SMART column last week and flatly say that local transport funds should be spent on highways not rail. I wish the Novato crowd behind the lawsuit would fess up to the fact they are freeway expansionists. If they wish to establish they are not simply anti-rail and pro-highway they need to demand expanded global warming EIR's on any new freeway lanes.

SMART's problem is that its scheme is so deficient it is an easy target for the anti-transit attack dogs. To make it impossible to double track is just appalling. You might as well let Marin County rip up the ROW. And it doesn't help to have the BART juggernaut close enough by to encourage the locals to space out on a broad gauge fantasy. Perhaps BART would be Marin's proper punishment - it would be an easy commute for the crack dealers from Richmond straight to Novato.