The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) announced that the new Salesforce Transit Center officially opens to the public at noon on Saturday, August 11 with a neighborhood block party.
The new Salesforce Transit Center features a 5.4-acre rooftop public park with an amphitheater, gardens, trails, open grass areas and children’s play space as well as a restaurant and café. Photo by Noah Berger
BC STAFF REPORT
Published: August, 2018
The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) announced that the new Salesforce Transit Center officially opens to the public at noon on Saturday, August 11 with a neighborhood block party. Inaugural transbay bus service by AC Transit and others will begin August 12.
The transit center replaces the seismically deficient Transbay Terminal with a modern regional transportation hub connecting transit systems throughout the Bay Area. It includes a 5.4-acre rooftop public park programmed with year-round free activities and features an amphitheater, gardens, trails, open grass areas and children’s play space as well as a restaurant and café. There is also a public art program and 100,000 square feet of shopping and dining. At one million square feet, the center stretches four blocks with four stories above ground and two stories below. The transit center will help ease traffic congestion and reduce pollution, making transit easier and more efficient.
Planning and design is underway for phase 2 of the project, which includes a 1.3-mile rail extension that will bring Caltrain from its current terminus at Fourth and King to the transit center. The center will also be the northern terminus for California’s high-speed rail system.
Salesforce Transit Center was designed by award-winning Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects to meet the needs of a growing region and city with a 21st century, world-class transit center serving transportation systems throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Bounded by Mission, Howard, Beale and Second streets, the center is owned and operated by the TJPA, managed by Lincoln Property Co. and built by Webcor-Obayashi Joint Venture.
A neighborhood block party will be held August 11 from noon to 4 p.m. and will feature fun, free activities for Bay Area families including music, fitness classes, games, tours and performances, as well as exhibits of historic and state-of-the-art buses. Participants will be able to venture out onto the center’s Cable Stay Bridge, which is a rare opportunity. The event will also include pop-up retail shops, food trucks and cafes.
On Sunday, August 12, AC Transit will begin inaugural service from Salesforce Transit Center’s third-level bus deck. The following day, all 27 AC Transit transbay bus lines will transfer operations from the Transbay Temporary Terminal to the new bus deck. Other regional transit agencies, including Amtrak, Greyhound, Westcat Lynx and the Muni Treasure Island, will also provide service from the bus deck. Onsite rider assistance, maps and information will be available in advance of the grand opening.
The transit center project was funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the State of California, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, San Francisco County Transportation Authority, the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transportation Authority and AC Transit. The transit center’s name is the result of a naming rights agreement with Salesforce. More information is available at salesforcetransitcenter.com.
The Salesforce Transit Center stretches four blocks with four stories above ground and two below.
