San Francisco Transbay Terminal - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

San Francisco Transbay Transit Terminal, or simply Transbay Terminal, was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

, USA, located roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street

Mission Street

Mission Street is a north-south arterial thoroughfare in San Francisco, California that runs from the city's southern border to its northeast corner. The street and the Mission District through which it runs were named for the Spanish Mission Dolores, several blocks away from the modern route. Only...

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

Marin County, California

Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...

, east to the East Bay, and south to San Mateo County

San Mateo County, California

San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...

.

The Terminal permanently closed on August 7, 2010, to make way for the construction of the replacement facility, the Transbay Transit Center
San Francisco Transbay development
The San Francisco Transbay development plan consists of three supertall skyscrapers and ten other skyscrapers and highrises proposed in San Francisco. The towers are proposed to fund the replacement of the San Francisco Transbay Terminal in the South of Market neighborhood near the Financial...

, 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

Ray LaHood

Raymond H. "Ray" LaHood is a Republican politician from Illinois who is currently the United States Secretary of Transportation, having served since 2009. Previously, he represented the Illinois's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms .-Early life and...

, Speaker of the House

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...

Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...

, and Mayor of San Francisco

Mayor of San Francisco

The Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of San Francisco's city and county government. The mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch....

Gavin Newsom

Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...

attended the ceremony. The new transit center is scheduled to be completed in August 2017. Demolition and construction activity can be tracked at daybydaytransbay.com and viewed live on Dropcam.

Bridge Railway

The Transbay Terminal was built as the San Francisco terminus for the electric commuter trains of the Southern Pacific

East Bay Electric Lines

The East Bay Electric Lines were a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad which operated a system of electric interurban-type trains in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...

, the Key System

Key System

The Key System was a privately owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when the system was sold to a newly formed public...

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

AC Transit

AC Transit is an Oakland-based regional public transit agency serving the western half of Alameda County and parts of western Contra Costa County in the western, Bay-side area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area...

Agencies that Serve the Temporary Transbay Terminal

Several agencies currently serve the Temporary Transbay Terminal, including:

AC Transit
AC Transit
AC Transit is an Oakland-based regional public transit agency serving the western half of Alameda County and parts of western Contra Costa County in the western, Bay-side area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area...

(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
Golden Gate Transit
Golden Gate Transit is a public transportation system serving the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. It mainly serves Marin and Sonoma Counties, and also provides limited service to San Francisco and Contra Costa County.Golden Gate Transit is one of three...

(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
SamTrans
SamTrans is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into portions of San Francisco and Palo Alto...

(stops on Main St.)
- Commute-only route: Route 391
- Daily routes: Routes 292 and KX
- All-Nighter route: Route 397
Muni
San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...

(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
WestCAT
WestCAT is a public transportation service in western Contra Costa County . It is a service of the Western Contra Costa Transit Authority....

(stops inside terminal)
- Commute-only route: Lynx
Valley of the Moon Commute Club
Valley of the Moon Commute Club
Valley of the Moon Commute Club is a privately owned and operated transit system based in the San Francisco Bay Area.-History:The service began in Sonoma, California as a non-profit during the 1970s oil crises as a cheaper alternative to driving to financial district job centers in San Francisco...

(stops on Mission & 1st)
- One commute trip only: Sonoma-San Francisco
Other services:
- Caltrans
  California Department of Transportation
  The California Department of Transportation is a government department in the U.S. state of California. Its mission is to improve mobility across the state. It manages the state highway system and is actively involved with public transportation systems throughout the state...
  
  Bay Bridge Bike Shuttle (stops on Main St.)
- Kaiser
  Kaiser Permanente
  Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield...
  
  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

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

hydrocarbon

Hydrocarbon

In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups, called hydrocarbyls....

s in levels ranging from 20 to 9,000 parts per million. On February 3, 1986, the excavation was backfilled.

The new terminal

The City and County of San Francisco, the Alameda – Contra Costa Transit District

AC Transit

(AC Transit), and the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain

Caltrain

Caltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. The northern terminus of the rail line is in San Francisco, at 4th and King streets; its southern terminus is in Gilroy...

) 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

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

via the Caltrain line.

BART has also expressed interest in being part of this plan by having their proposed "Second Transbay Tube

Transbay Tube

The Transbay Tube is the part of BART which runs under San Francisco Bay in California. The tube is 3.6 miles long; including approaches from the nearest stations , it totals 6 miles...

" 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

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), 3000000 square feet (278,709.1 m²) of new office and commercial space and 100000 square feet (9,290.3 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

Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...

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

Rincon Hill

Rincon Hill is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills."-Location:...

and at Millennium Tower (301 Mission Street)

Millennium Tower (301 Mission Street)

Millennium Tower is a 58-story highrise condominium completed in 2009 in the San Francisco Financial District, South of Market. A mixed-use building, primarily residential, it is the tallest building in San Francisco to include residences. The blue-gray glass, late-modernist tower is bounded by...

.

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

Earthquake engineering

Earthquake engineering is the scientific field concerned with protecting society, the natural and the man-made environment from earthquakes by limiting the seismic risk to socio-economically acceptable levels...

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

Liquefaction

Liquefaction may refer to:* Liquefaction, the general process of becoming liquid* Soil liquefaction, the process by which sediments become suspended* Liquefaction of gases in physics, chemistry, and thermal engineering* Liquefactive necrosis in pathology...

.
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

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

César Pelli

César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...

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.

External links

- Transbay Temporary Terminal website The "temporary" transbay terminal, expected to operate until at least 2017.
- Transbay Construction Blog
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

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.