How terribly, terribly, amazing and surprising that LTK Engineering Services should first produce a “study” that “determines” that any first-world post-19th-century, proven, cost-effective, in-production train cannot possibly be used in Marin and Sonoma, global hotbeds and leaders in rail transportation … and then … LTK Engineering Services gets a contract to “design” one-off, 50-year-obsolete, Marin-unique, high-floor, passenger-hostile, massive-cost-overrun-GUARANTEED rah-rah-rah-USA-number-one-no-foreign-stuff-allowed rail cars.

“Rent seeking” is the economic term for the behavior of the US rail consultant mafia.
Step one, game the regulations and game the “studies” to exclude competition, on your own say-so.
Step two, profit!

We get third world results, at triple or worse the cost of better projects anywhere else in the world, we get saddled with crap performance, high operating costs, dismal fuel efficiency, and the ongoing maintenance nightmare of a globally unique toy train designed by amateurs, while the criminals responsible laugh all the way to the bank.

If anybody wants an object lesson in how we are completely doomed, SMART is as good a place to start as anything.

But congratulations to LTK *Financial* Engineering Services.