I am hopeful that political candidates running for office in the November 2014 California elections will take on the proper and wise and cost-effective and transportation excellence cause of BART Around The Bay by committing to replace Caltrain along the SF Peninsula with BART over the next two decades and provide a transferless frequent, safer, non-polluting rail capability for travelers at any major trip generation point around the Bay.  

Caltrain Death Count as of today:
7 dead in 2014 into August.
48 dead since 1/1/2011
208 dead since 1/1/1995

Below is another recent blog on the BAtB Twitter:

On the question of Grade-separating street-level tracks such as Caltrain has, are not as effective as grade-separated tracks as BART would have. 

Caltrain's easy street-level fatalites, including suicides, and accidents ought to speak loudly to you. Caltrain deaths at San Antonio road overcrossing of the Caltrain street-level tracks and other i/cs are clear. Additionally, Caltrain has a higher kill rate due to its train-to-track clearance than BART--which, because of its third rail has more space--and has saved lives from both suicide attempts and accidents from those who fell on the tracks, much to the dismay of the former.

As for costs, the Transportation Demand Management capability of one-seat BART Around The Bay to unite East, South, and Bay riders, commuters, event attendees, University students, and shoppers, offers huge environmental, time, and motor-vehicle cost-saving benefits.  As written previously in blogs of "BARTAroundTheBay" and "Freemotorist', apparently some rigid Caltrain (always done it this way") zealots cannot understand readily that spending another dime on Caltrain also known as the 30-year High-Speed Rail (HSR) shill and placeholder (as Jerry Brown and his 40-yr long taxpayer-funded pro-rail progeny Rod Diridon Sr confirmed when they both said that they"...have been working to bring HSR to California for 30 years" KCBS-Face The Nation, 2012; KBAY Sunday Southbay w-Sam Van Zandt-2012). 

Caltrain was initially funded by Gov JB1 in 1982, 30 years ago, with local support by then-politician Diridon.  Replacing Caltrain (a 15 yr project for the future betterment of the Bay Area transit users, in which another 200 people or so will die on Caltrain's tracks), and using its Right Of Way (ROW) for BART Around The Bay wouild minimize cost by $Billions.  

Redirecting the $5Billion or so planned for Caltrain-aka HSR construction from SJ to SF and the TransBay Terminal, to BART would go a long way to closing the $8 Billion in funding for the last 21 miles gap in BART Around The Bay from Millbrae to the planned SouthBay/SCU station.  This would nearly double BART's capacity with unified two-way BART travel capability around the bay area's major university, shopping, airport/train, downtowns' trip generation points.  

Caltrain (aka HSR) vs BART cost deflection arguements ignore that, as Brown and Diridon said essentially, Caltrain is HSR. HSR is going to cost well over the current $68 Billion fraudulent number for a completely unneeded public tax(es), toll, and fee choo-choo.  

Eight Billion $ for a top-notch BARTAroundTheBay two-way closed-circuit, frequent, safer, electrified, grade-separated (by tunnel, trench, or aerial viaduct) zero-congesting rail, is far 'cheaper and far more beneficial than the boutique, limited, less-frequent, dangerous, polluting (think:1910 Dumbarton Rail resurrection) over the now-Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge South Bay. waters) back-and-forth only limioted set of at-capacity trains. 

Embrace a better SF Bay Area backbone (high-capacity) mobility future, not mired in "always done it this way thinking", certainly not in progressive Silicon Valley/SF Bay Area where "Creative Destruction" is the hallmark of our innovation and creativity.