Perhaps you failed to notice the veiled contempt in my own writings over the years about some of the stupid decisions at BART. But broader still, at all public transit agencies, and even the big stUPid upon occasion. However, I am able to focus that ire where it really belongs - at the contemptible contractors and politicians that took the new kids on the block (BART) for a disgustingly expensive ride - and then providing really crappy work to boot.

You must have missed the fact that these were not the low bidders at all. Nobody did any lowballing - they just plain ripped BART off. GRS was the low bidder; while Westinghouse was not even the 2nd lowest bidder. But they got in anyway by the absurd claim that GRS was somehow not competent to do automatic train control work, while someone who had never ever done any at all, was qualified - somehow. That's how BART got the patently unsafe and unreliable train control system in the first place. And that's why the civil design is so hard on the cars. And also, that is why the lightest rapid transit cars ever, are the hardest on the rail ever; and the noisiest, and the . . . . .

Naturally, when the likes of Bechtel, Westinghouse and the Army corp collaborated together on so many previous projects (such as nuclear and Hydro power plants), they got in tight together. BART was just another such project for them. That they managed, via the political clout of the Army corp, to get jobs which they were NOT even close to qualified for, and not even the low bidder for, can be laid directly at the feet of the most contemptible of all - POLITICIANS! --- Oh, and did I mention - that those were California politicians --- Need I say more!

That BART had to then hire their own engineers to fix it themselves on their own dime, says a lot. The fact is, that BART has been digging out from under this ever since; but is today successful way beyond the wildest of dreams (450,000+ riders every weekday). That they successfully did that, says a lot. It says a whole lot, in fact, of the profound soundness of the basic underlying technology - steel wheel on steel rail; that it still works at all, after so many mistakes were made. Those guys you disparaged (my colleagues) were the ones that fixed it and made it all work. Credit should be given where credit is due.

Now if we could just get the D--- politicians and scumbag contractors out of the way, and leave it to the actual industrial experts to accomplish, then maybe those mistakes would be far fewer, and the costs but a fraction of what they are now.

OPB

P.S. I know I know - I been accused of idealism before; and at my age? (62) - go figure!