I too, had fond memories of the WP to San Jose. I was being given a cab ride in a silver F7 (917?)at Williams St. yard when the hogger asked me if I was aware that Amtrak was running the 4449 back to Portland and charging "only" double fare for the priveledge of riding. I ended up riding L.A. to San Jose on my first steam-powered mainline trip. So much for the wistful. More pragmatically, there were other comments that struck home. California's population density in urban areas is actually making travelling by auto increasingly impractical a good deal of every day. Trucks and autos don't mix well, either. Trucks also do almost ALL of the deteriorative damage to the extremely expensive freeways. Yes, I too believe that "society" will regret the retrenchment of branchline railroads, even for such a noble cause as HSR. I suspect it will become necessary to pass laws to limit the hours and cargo type of trucks, and encourage intermodality as far in distance as possible to the destination to have roadways even remotely usable. What is driving this mentality, unfortunately, is real estate prices, and the mad desire of politicians to "permit" (tax revenues) poorly advised development that degrades the quality of life for most. We are still suffering from a lie that was started by the railroads in the '50s that trains (branch lines and passengers) were an obsolete form of transportation to be short-shrifted at every possible opportunity to make room for roads and autos. I was particularly upset by very low profile, in terms of publicity, development on the William St. property which destroyed the continuity of the ROW. The main track alignment could have been preserved for future light rail to Tamien, giving an alternative and feeder to BART from Alum Rock/Santa Clara, which will be the point it goes underground to its terminus. Sensibility yields to revenue once again.