With most public accounting, assets are fully depreciated as soon as they're paid for. So there's little there to get money back on in the event of a shutdown (whatever the public equivalent is to Chapter 7) bankruptcy. The capital vendors have already been paid. OTOH, whatever they get in the way of revenue for selling assets (would BART or Valley Rail be interested in the trains?) flows directly to the bottom line - paying current bills.

As for transit, if SMART shuts down, presumably GGT, Marin Transit, and Sonoma County Transit would pick up where they left off before SMART in the way of (now reduced) commuter and social service transportation. It wouldn't be pretty, but some buses are still there. So yes, I could definitely see a way for SMART to go the way of the dodo, selling off the mobile assets, and reverting to a short line freight operation on alternate Thursdays, or something like that.

Wait a sec. There's some company that's planning to resurrect the dodo using genetically engineered eggs carried by a pigeon. Does that mean there's hope for SMART, someday?