Thoughts on the Transbay Terminal

Section of the Salesforce Transit Center

Salesforce Tower in the background

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

February, 2020

Back in the 1930s, San Francisco built a downtown terminal for trains coming into the city from the East Bay. Called the Transbay Terminal, it operated from 1939 to 1959 as a train/tram station, and was then converted entirely to bus use. It closed in 2010 and was then demolished to make way for the new Transbay Terminal. Wikipedia has a helpful article about the old terminal. You can see lots of photos via Google.

By the 1980s, when I started arriving in SF at the terminal, it was not in great shape, but it was awfully convenient, because I was dropped off about two blocks from my first job here, at 333 Market. Subsequently, I worked in the Embarcadero Center, 505 Sansome St., the Icehouse building in Levi Plaza, and back to 505, all for the same company and all at varying distances from the terminal.

Old Transbay Terminal

Eventually, it became apparent that the Transbay Terminal was decrepit and needed to be demolished and replaced by something more modern. There was a big push to make it possible for CalTrain to eventually be able to run trains directly into the terminal, that is, downtown, and so despite the fact that this was completely on spec, the new terminal ("Salesforce Transit Center," thank you naming rights, this is a civic building that shouldn't have a corporate name) was built with sublevels that could, if necesssary, accommodate full-sized trains. I expect there is a lot of infrastructure either already built or with space for eventual build-out; for trains, you need power, platforms, tracks, ventilation, elevators and escalators to the platforms, maintenance space, some way to turn the things around (unless they just back up to get out of the terminal), etc.

The project did not include the actual tunnels or tracks to the current San Francisco terminus of Caltrain, which is located at Fourth and Townsend. This screen shot of Google Maps shows the locations of CalTrain and, sort of, the new Transbay Terminal, which would be around the middle top of the screen shot:

It's around a mile as the crow flies, I think.

Now, I started writing this blog post a while back, between the opening of the new terminal on August 12, 2018 and its ignominious closing about six weeks later, on September 25, when cracks were discovered in a couple of major support beams. Fortunately, the temporary terminal two blocks away had been fenced, but not rendered unusable, in that time period. It went back into service until the new terminal re-opened on August 11, 2019.

I am not, personally, hugely thrilled about the new terminal. It cost an enormous amount of money, around $2.2 billion. I have not investigate how much of the cost is attributable to making the building rail-ready. It is very large and casts a fairly big shadow. There is a park on the roof that has some issues (I think some of the plants weren't doing well?) but which I hear is very nice and has pleasant amenities. I went up there once, but either I am coming or going when I pass through, and while I have time to poke around a bit, I don't have time to linger. 

The areas that I do see are big and empty:

Taken from escalator, going down into the lobby.

Photo by Lisa Hirsch, September, 2019

When the transit center opened, there were no static maps showing the location of each transbay bus, just video displays that changed way too fast for you to actually scan them. Apparently there were complaints, because now there are stands with printed maps all over.

Those four bright white pylons on the floor? They have signage pointing to each transit system you can readily access from the terminal. But guess which major transit system is missing?

If you guessed BART, you'd be right! Because nobody coming off a transbay bus might want to find BART! That's right, there is no signage telling you which direction BART is in.

Pylon, up close

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

February, 2020

Upstairs, the build-out included queue guides embedded in the floor where each bus stops...but apparently this wasn't enough, because they had to use masking tape to add a lot of guides:

Go this way.

Photo by Lisa Hirsch, September, 2019

Seriously? Nobody thought of this??

And here's a point that amazes me, and that I think is a legal violation: I have been unable to find any kind of finding aid for people who are blind or have limited vision. I can't find any Braille and I can't find audio help. There isn't even an information desk with live humans in the lobby, not that you could find it without help, if you were blind. But the center claims that it is ADA-compliant:

Yes, the transit center is designed to serve people with disabilities and is fully compliant with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). This includes ADA-compliant entrances, exits, paths of travel, restrooms, and five sets of public elevators throughout the building for the Bus Deck and rooftop park.

Maybe they don't understand what "fully compliant" means.