On my way home yesterday, I noticed a hi-rail truck sitting on (over)the north abutment of the Hwy 101 overpass of the onetime WP San Jose branch. It was only a few minutes and my heart sank a bit. It was Thursday, the usual operation day of the "local" on the remnant of San Jose branch. When I reached the Berryessa Ave crossing, I spotted another hi-rail truck nearby. I looked up and noticed the gate arms had been removed from the counterweights and the signal lights turned inward, as had all of the crossing signals beyond the 101 overpass a few years ago. It completely dashed my hopes that BART and the freight ops could co-exist. One of the arguments I have voiced was that retaining the conventional rail line along with BART --possible-- would prove a valuable foresight at some future point. As anyone who has read some of my posts knows, one of my main philosophical points about "high speed" trains of any sort is that if we don't build quasi-parallel "slower speed" feeder and distribution lines for HSR, you can drop the "H" in HSR. The fire that just happened in Oakland is a very good example of needing to have itinerant non-asphault options for rail systems whose failure translates into millions of dollars of loss and enormous congestion per day. For my money, the Bay Bridge East end replacement should never have been approved without at least building in the option to retrofit with light rail. I believe that qualifies as stepping over dollars to pick up dimes. Aah, se la vie.