Another thing I neglected to include in my prior rant, is that 97% of the pedestrian and vehicular traffic crossings are at grade level with the tracks along the line,through the towns and country side. Is anybody in their right mind going to run trains at 70 mph through there? If you had elevated tracks, you might stand a chance without numerous fatalities. You know, where the train leaves the tracks and runs down along public streets and turns corners trying to hit vehicles or people type. Don't forget suicide by train either. Trying to set-up the row for SMART to run on elevated track would be even more cost prohibitive than what they have in mind now. The bus bridge to Oakland to connect with BART to San Francisco is another time consuming hassle for the passengers from Larkspur. I forgot. The main commute effort is no longer to San Francisco anymore. It is Sonoma and Marin that has the jobs people will commute to now. That is according to a prior post on this site. So what's left. Take the bus to Sonoma,Marin and San Francisco. Here's the kicker fans. The bus system is already well established and has been for over forty years. It is named "Golden Gate Transit". It is governed by another political body. The Golden Gate Bridge District. It's board of directors consist of a politician from each county from San Francisco north including Humbolt. You could upgrade it to a rolling pleasure palace and expand the routes to many more areas of Marin and Sonoma Counties to meet delivery demand instead of rails set in one specific North/ South direction for 1/10 the cost of SMART.
Now back to the freight railroad. It has been proved many times that it is not a viable private enterprise undertaking (called loser, bankruptcy,etc.). To saddle the taxpayers with that financial obligation should be punishable by incarceration for fraud for 49 years,two terms running consecutively with no possibility for parole.
R.E.Rail