I didn't miss that at all.

However, Paul Dyson also wrote "Now we push ahead with the bigger task, to forge some cooperation between Metrolink and Amtrak to improve the weekday schedule".

Did you miss that? However, I will re-phrase:
It could just as well have been this SurfLiner they hit! - ON A WEEKDAY!
Might be safer to just wait for all those scab metrolink trains to go by first anyway!

Run those metrolink trains with real "Professionals" and then I'll ride again - but not before (regardless of any fancy control system).

And btw, "PTS" is nothing but fools gold - something our worthless congress did just to pander to a "dummied down public" with fancy sounding silly buzz words.

PTS based on GPS or any other radio ranging method has repeatedly failed to meet safety requirements, except where it is used in conjunction with conventional signaling methods, as it is already on some Amtrak routes back east. In these applications, "Authorities" are given to exceed the 79 mile limit imposed by existing block lengths, as long as you are beyond the higher speed's braking distance to the next obstacle (such as a red signal or failed grade crossing), plus a couple of thousand feet to account for inevitable GPS errors. Under 79mph, and as you get closer, conventional track based methods of train control still govern.

The question still remains: what about freight trains - On Amtrak's Detroit PTS installation, they are not.

Just as all you "railbuffs" seem to get annoyed at mis-information about railroads; being in the GPS satellite business, I get annoyed at all the misinformation bandied about on this forum and elsewhere about GPS capabilities. GPS will not even begin to have the necessary robustness for several years out, when more refined GPS timing will finally become available for civilian uses.

Even then, public safety will be a much tougher nut to crack than just simply measuring your current location. Still, the GPS output will be only a "preponderance of evidence" as to where you really are - not an actual safety critical known fact! And that is not any better than how the engineer's human brain already works now, complete with its inevitable judgment errors. At least a professional would make a lot fewer mistakes; because he/she will be taking the job seriously, and not cavorting with teenage groupies while on the job!

Another little known fact, is that civilian GPS services can be shutdown or denied by the military, without notice at any time. More commonly, on an 11 year cycle, solar radiation becomes intense enough to sometimes deny GPS services as well. When either of these happen, all safety critical operations depending upon GPS will simply have to be shut down as well, for the duration.

Not a good plan!

If you are interested, see Wikipedia for additional info on GPS:

GPS Fact vs Fantacy