[www.marinij.com]

SMART is largely irrelevant in the overall context of Northbay transport. The clumsy connection north of Sir Francis Drake to the GGT ferries will soon serve to highlight the "trivial" impact.

NCRA-NWP will face a dwindling future. Petaluma, where NWP's business is located, is being overrun with yuppies and ritchie riches from down below who have no use for agriculture. All the town wants to do is build more housing blocks and increase the tax base. More money for city hall to spend on salaries. Those grain elevators will be forced out in due course. ABAG wil applaud.

Besides freight is automatically standard gauge and that will conflict with BART-MTC's long-range plans. SMART is just a place holder. IMHO if SMART cannot be reconstituted as electric light rail they might as well have paved the ROW, what GGT wanted to do.