FRA intervention could prove useful. A way will have to be found to mothball the line when there is little traffic and to protect it from abandonment.

I doubt that SMART will have the cojones to call for the permanent elimination of freight service. But the towns, especially Novato, will. They can file endless nuisance abatement complaints and use urban removal agencies to go after blighted NWP property. And they can always have recourse to the political machine to take action. Use what happened to the NWP ROW in Corte Madera as an example.