San Francisco Transbay Terminal

A 2008 view of the facade of the Timothy L. Pflueger-designed "Transbay Transit Terminal" which was completed in 1939

San Francisco Transbay Transit Terminal, or simply Transbay Terminal, was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, USA, located roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2nd Street. It served long-distance buses and transbay buses from San Francisco north to Marin County, east to the East Bay, and south to San Mateo County.

The Terminal permanently closed on August 7, 2010, to make way for the construction of the replacement facility, the Transbay Transit Center, and associate towers. All long-distance and transbay bus operations were transferred to the Temporary Transbay Terminal, located at the nearby block bounded by Main, Folsom, Beale, and Howard Streets.

The new Transbay Transit Center broke ground on August 11, 2010. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom attended the ceremony. The new transit center is scheduled to be completed in August 2017. Demolition and construction activity can be viewed live on Dropcam.

Bridge Railway

The bus deck, formerly the track level of the train station, in 2010

The Transbay Terminal was built as the San Francisco terminus for the electric commuter trains of the Southern Pacific, the Key System and the Sacramento Northern railroads which ran on the south side of the lower deck of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. The SP and Sacramento Northern trains ceased service across the Bay in 1941 only two years after the Terminal was completed. The Key trains ran until April 1958 after which the tracks were removed from the terminal and replaced with pavement for use primarily by the buses of the publicly-owned successor of the Key System, AC Transit.

Agencies that Serve the Temporary Transbay Terminal

Several agencies currently serve the Temporary Transbay Terminal, including:

• AC Transit (stops inside the terminal; Route 800 stops on Beale between Howard and Folsom Sts.)
  • Commute-only routes: Routes B, C, CB, E, FS, G, H, J, L, LA, LC, NX, NX1, NX2, NX3, NX4, NXC, OX, P, S, SB, V, W, and Z
  • Daily Transbay routes: Routes F, NL, and O
  • All-Nighter route: Route 800
• Golden Gate Transit (stops on Main between Howard and Folsom Sts.; most commute service bus routes still stop near old Transbay Terminal location)
  • Routes 10, 70, 80, 101, 101X
• Greyhound Bus Lines (stops inside terminal)
  • Used as a terminal station for many routes from around the United States
• SamTrans (stops on Main St.)
  • Commute-only route: Route 391
  • Daily routes: Routes 292 and KX
  • All-Nighter route: Route 397
• Muni (stops on Howard, Beale, and Main Sts.)
  • Local routes: Routes 5, 38, 71, and 108
  • Limited stop routes: Routes 38L*, 71L*, 81X*, and 82X*
  • All-Nighter routes: Routes 38 and 108
• WestCAT (stops inside terminal)
  • Commute-only route: Lynx
• Valley of the Moon Commute Club (stops on Mission & 1st)
  • One commute trip only: Sonoma-San Francisco
• Other services:
  • Caltrans Bay Bridge Bike Shuttle (stops on Main St.)
  • Kaiser Hospital Shuttle

Note: * - operates on select days and times only

Environmental

On January 30, 1986, four underground storage fuel tanks were excavated and removed from the 150 First Street site. Each of these tanks had a capacity of 1,000 gallons (Earth Metrics, 1989). Eight soil samples showed the existence of total petroleum hydrocarbons in levels ranging from 20 to 9,000 parts per million. On February 3, 1986, the excavation was backfilled.

Transbay Terminal Replacement Project

The new terminal

The City and County of San Francisco, the Alameda – Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), and the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain) have proposed a plan to replace the currently underutilized and outdated building with an entirely new and more functional building at roughly the same location. In addition to maintaining the current bus services, this proposed terminal would also include a tunnel that would extend the Caltrain commuter rail line from its current terminus at Fourth and King Streets to the new Transbay Terminal. If and when this project is completed, Caltrain riders would no longer need to transfer to Muni in order to reach the downtown financial district. Additionally, the heavy rail portion of the terminal would be designed to accommodate the planned High Speed Rail from Los Angeles via the Caltrain line.

BART has also expressed interest in being part of this plan by having their proposed "Second Transbay Tube" connect to the new terminal.

The final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was published as of 2005, and construction began on Phase I, the new Transbay Terminal building, in August 2010. Phase II of the project, the rail extension, is planned to begin in 2012 and open to rail service in 2019.

The new Transbay Terminal is named Transbay Transit Center.

New skyscrapers

Main article: San Francisco Transbay development

Along with the new terminal, thirteen towers have been proposed on sites around the new terminal, ranging from 300 feet (91 m) to 1,200 feet (366 m) tall. If built out to fund the construction of the new terminal, San Francisco will have a new tallest building and its skyline will be altered. 2,600 new homes (35 percent of which will be affordable), 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m²) of new office and commercial space and 100,000 square feet (9,300 m²) of retail are planned as well . City officials have decided to consider rezoning the area around the new terminal, and will analyze the potential to raise existing height limits (550 ft. (170 m) max) upward, with the possibility of three towers exceeding 1,000 ft. (300 m) in height. On December 21, 2006, Renzo Piano proposed a five tower complex of one 600 foot (180 m) tower, two 900 foot (275 m) towers and two 1,200 foot (370 m) towers. Other towers are under construction nearby on Rincon Hill and at Millennium Tower (301 Mission Street).

Serious issues exist with regard to conforming with emergency post earthquake transportation planning guidelines and placing massive amounts of building materials and glass directly above a major transit hub and its road and rail connections. In a March 21, 2008 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the author, David Perlman speaks of "the danger to lifelines – the roads, rail tracks and bridges that must carry ambulances, fire trucks and fleeing cars after the quake; the airports that are bound to be unusable". The article quotes "Keith Knudsen of the national nonprofit Earthquake Engineering Research Institute" on the special civil engineering needs of the area: " the downtown area south of Market, where well-engineered high-rises are rapidly filling the neighborhoods, would be particularly dangerous in a major quake because the low-lying filled land there is subject to liquefaction. Those new buildings might well remain standing in the coming Hayward quake, he said, "but if the streets there settle by a couple of feet, those buildings will be isolated."

Construction status

Temporary Transbay Terminal

The temporary Transbay Terminal has opened, on the corner of Main, Folsom, Beale, and Howard Streets. With its completion, the old Transbay Terminal was closed, and as of June 2011 its demolition is complete. Preparation work for the construction of the new terminal has begun.

The competition winner

As of September 20, 2007, the design proposed by César Pelli was chosen. This decision ends the eight month competition between various design firms around the world. The Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and Hines design includes an elevated park, some sixty feet above the street, to hide the inner workings of the terminal. A single tower will also rise into the sky, changing the skyline of San Francisco.

See also

• California High-Speed Rail
• Ferry Building
• Key System
• List of tallest buildings in San Francisco
• San Francisco Transbay development
• Transbay Tube

Bibliography

• Earth Metrics Inc, ‘'Environmental Site Assessment, Assessors Block 3747, San Francisco'‘, File 7825W0.001, 25 April 1989

External links

• Official website
  • Transbay Temporary Terminal website The "temporary" transbay terminal, expected to operate until at least 2017.
• Planning Department district planning project
• Site with information on Key System service to the transbay terminal
• New Transbay Transit Center
• Photo: Key System Train Inside Transbay Terminal
• Transit Unlimited - Transbay Terminal transit information