The assertion that "(In the earliest days of the "space race" we spent millions developing a ballpont pen which would work in weightlessness, while the Russians simply decided to use pencils!)" is false, according to [www.snopes.com]

As far as tearing out and building anew street railway lines (including overhead wiring), the stuff doesn't last forever, and a certain amount of rebuilding would have been required if the Key trackage had been kept. In 50 years, it could possibly have amounted to the equivalent amount of work as building new from scratch.

In 1989, the Bay Bridge failed; BART didn't. If a train had crashed into either the fallen upper deck or into the bay, it might have been years, if ever,before another train ran there again.

And, yes, I miss the Key trains and much more of the East and West Bay I knew at that time.