It is very, very difficult to induce political insiders to even give a modicum of fair consideration of reasonably comparable alternatives. As an example I give you the Tejon-Tehachapi controversy. The selection process has been totally biased in favor of the Palmdale-Tehachapi detour.

If my memory serves me correctly in 1966 Muni had a bond measure on the ballot which called for essentially replacing the M line with a subway as far as SF State College and scrapping all the streetcar lines. It failed and the current subway-surface concept evolved.

I was told in the late sixties by someone not with us any more who judiciously summed up the BART broad gauge issue with something like the SP was pleased with it. It makes more sense if you consider the UP's current unhappiness with CHSRA impingement on UP property.