New Transbay Transit Terminal Comes Closer to Reality
Press Releases
04/18/2001
(Oakland, CA) Creation of a new intermodal transit terminal in downtown San Francisco came a big step closer to reality with the formation in April of a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to take on the tasks of planning, building and then managing the facility. The new JPA consists of AC Transit, the City of San Francisco and the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board that operates Caltrain commuter rail service. A plan under consideration would replace today’s 1930′s-era Transbay Transit Terminal with a bright, airy new transportation hub in which multi-level, open air bus lanes encircle a translucent five-story core. Crystalline canopies protect passengers stepping through sliding glass doors to access buses. Inside the terminal, travelers would find retail shops, restaurants, and other services – all the amenities befitting a world-class transit facility. Commercial development on the site could create a major hotel, town-homes and considerable office and retail space. The new terminal would be served by AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit, MUNI and SamTrans, Greyhound, paratransit and other bus operators. It could also be home to an underground extension (from its present terminus) of Caltrain and, eventually, high-speed rail service from Los Angeles. Legislation proposed in Sacramento would transfer state-owned transbay terminal property to the new authority, projecting that commercial development could help fund the project. Projections are that the ground breaking could happen by 2003 and the new transit terminal could be opened by 2008.