In the case of the Millbrae station project, why didn't anyone at the Caltrain Joint Powers Board care that the BART project would severely limit the future capacity of Caltrain? The design of the Millbrae station could have been altered, to allow three tracks for Caltrain, but it wasn't. Sure, millions of dollars can be spent in the future to correct this mistake, and give Caltrain the three tracks that its own studies say that it needs in Millbrae, but why was the mistake made.
South of Millbrae, Caltrain plans to add a third track in the coming years, reaching to just north of the San Mateo station. Caltrain also plans to add a third track from south of the San Mateo station to just south of the Hillsdale station. Why not just build a third track straight through from Millbrae to Belmont?
This is a bittersweet issue. While San Mateo is building a beautiful new station for Caltrain and SamTrans buses, the design of the station, again approved by Caltrain, constricts the railway to a two track ROW.