Does SMART/NWP have any places in Petaluma or Santa Rosa for transload operations? THAT is the way you get freight traffic these days. Nobody who doesn't already have one is going to pay to install a switch and spur from PTC track, for a few cars a week. Using trucks for "local switching" though makes plenty of sense. See for instance Strasburg.

Everybody (except maybe Brightline; we don't know about their whole operation yet but when running just the coast line they did lose money) loses money hauling passengers in the US. The best you can hope for is, perhaps, breaking even on operating expense (not including capital and even track maintenance). Losing money on freight is a different story, and if SMART is doing so there needs to be some reevaluation of the arrangements.