"SB: Right, so you just mean a high-capacity rail network should have been built, but not necessarily to BART specs. When I was once asked the same question, I said I’d have changed the decision to make BART non-standard gauge, so now we could be talking about extending BART on disused and lightly used freight lines."

Appears to be another politically correct lightweight to me but this remark does reveal some insight into why the SP demanded Bechtel gauge. Still the real reason was the possibility of an entirely different vision of Bay rapid transit, namely RER-stadtbahn. I would have done what the SP was really afraid of - European style wholesale nationalization. Take over the SP in the early sixties, build another bridge for rail parallel to the Bay Bridge, electrify and downgrade freight and upgrade passenger.

Picture the USRA and Conrail somewhat as models.