For those of you who are not familiar with the geography of the area Smart would serve, you will need some more information. The trains will not terminate in San Francisco, California although some will argue that the majority of the Smart Commuters will not end their commute in San Francisco but other Cities well north of the terminus of SMART which will be the community of Larkspur, some twelve or more miles north of San Francisco. For those who will continue on to San Francisco, one would have to transfer to a bus or take a water vessel on to San Francisco and this ain't cheap on a twice a day commute for your average hourly worker Mc Gee. So what will SMART serve? A small segment of the commuting community inter Sonoma and Marin Counties parallel to highway 101 north of San Francisco. Pretty expensive all the way around no matter what way you look at it. Expensive to run, expensive to the tax payers who won't use it(because their commute route is not served by SMART train service) and expensive for the commuter to ride to get to work. Doesn't sound so SMART to me. The area is served by Golden Gate Transit which has operated buses very successfully for decades. They can realign their service routes easily as demands in service areas change, as they use surface streets and do not have to by land to erect an new right of way. Just use different streets. In case you haven't heard, the cost land in Marin and Sonoma Counties is way up there. Buses are less expensive to acquire initially and are less expensive to maintain than trains for so short and narrow a service route. Too late, you have been hosed.
R.E.Rail