Buses back after fixes to transit hub’s beams
Transbay center, closed for months, declared good to go
For the first time in nearly a year, commuters are able to use the $2.2 billion Transbay transit center in downtown San Francisco, its cracked support beams repaired and its bus deck reopened for business.
AC Transit and other transit agency coaches rolled into and out of the transit center on Mission Street on Sunday for the first time since Sept. 25, when the brandnew bus hub was abruptly shut down after workers discovered a crack in a steel beam over Fremont Street. A second girder, a parallel beam that also crosses Fremont Street, was also found to be fractured hours later.
The center and its 5.4acre rooftop garden reopened July 1, but bus service had to wait for drivers to be trained on using the expansive thirdlevel bus deck and for various technical preparations to be made. On Sunday, all was finally ready.
Rosa Duarte, 82, of Alameda makes trips to San Francisco every Sunday to bring fresh meals to a friend. She’d been riding an AC Transit bus to the temporary, openair transit hub at nearby Howard and Beale streets. Sunday was the
“It’s better here because it’s new and fresh. The old terminal is really hot.” Rosa Duarte, regular bus passenger
first time she’d set foot inside the new, threeblock center since last fall.
“It’s better here because it’s new and fresh,” she said as she waited for the O line to take her back to the East Bay. “The old terminal is really hot. I like this better.”
Patronage at the terminal was typically light for a Sunday. It will be a much different story Monday — one year to the day after the center was first opened for service.
More than 14,000 riders a day take the AC Transit buses that will go into and out of the center. AC Transit will run 27 transbay lines in addition to four earlybird express buses it is operating for BART. WestCAT Lynx and Muni’s 25Treasure Island bus will also use the transit center’s bus deck.
Greyhound is expected to make the move in a few weeks. Several Muni and Golden Gate Transit buses are already stopping in a plaza just outside the center.
Bus riders into San Francisco “won’t need to do anything” except know that they’ll be dropped off inside the transit center, said AC Transit spokesman Robert Lyles.
The center’s reopening is expected to bring one big improvement: Buses using it don’t have to navigate clogged city streets, resulting in time savings of five to 20 minutes per ride.
For those leaving from San Francisco, the temporary terminal will be at least partially fenced off — with signs posted — to let riders know their buses have moved. AC Transit will have ambassadors on duty to direct passengers.
The new transit center will eventually have businesses including restaurants, coffee shops and even medical services. For now, food trucks operate outside the terminal and carts serve food in the rooftop park. Salesforce has naming rights to the center.
What the center won’t have, officials insist, are safety concerns. An independent panel of structural engineers and metals experts, as well as Transbay Joint Powers Authority engineers, deemed it safe after reviewing the damaged girders, approving and inspecting repairs, and examining other parts of the center that might be susceptible to cracking.