Earlier this year, an intriguing book promising to expose “one of the most catastrophic government transportation investments in U.S. history” began landing on desks at a curious mix of government agencies across California.
Copies of “The Great Train Heist” turned up at the Mariposa elections office, the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District, in envelopes addressed to officials at small agencies from Susanville to Fresno and throughout the North Bay.
The book is not about California’s controversial and still theoretical high speed rail, which conceivably could impact jurisdictions up and down the state. Rather, its pages take aim at Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, known as the SMART train, a 48-mile long passenger rail system connecting the Bay Area’s fifth largest city with small cities and towns across two counties…