First morning commute flows smoothly at transbay hub
Supervisors wielding orange wands waved buses into San Francisco’s Transbay transit center Monday morning in the first weekday commute in more than 10 months, while a “bus fountain” on the rooftop park spurted jets of water into the air as if in longanticipated celebration.
The return of weekday commuters to the recently reopened Transbay transit center got off to a smooth start as AC Transit and WestCAT Lynx buses from the East Bay pulled into the spacious, clean bus deck on the center’s third floor and dropped off passengers, including some who hadn’t previously entered the center.
“I actually didn’t know it had opened until I woke up from my nap,” said Rachel DeLeon, 37, of Hercules. “It looks really nice — it’s beautiful.”
Others had taken buses into the center during its sixweek debut in 2018 and were glad to be back.
“It’s better than the temporary terminal, because it’s enclosed and the buses can get in
and out a lot smoother and faster on the ramp off the bridge,” said Mike McTigh, a software developer who commutes from Los Altos to Emeryville via bike, Caltrain and AC Transit’s F bus.
Coaches rolled into and out of the Mission Street center Sunday for the first time since Sept. 25, when the new $2.2 billion 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.
Some riders on Monday were wary about the safety of the transit center, even after 10 months of repairs and inspections.
“It’s beautiful and very functional,” said Rose Robinson, 64, of Oakland after climbing off AC Transit’s NX2 bus. “But when I heard about the crack, I thought maybe they opened (the first time) a little bit early.
“I’m hoping it’s all resolved and is a safe place, because it’s great.”
Robert Lyles, an AC Transit spokesman, said the morning commute went just as hoped Monday.
“All the buses were coming in on time,” he said. “I think a lot of people are enjoying coming back here.”
The main questions riders had, he said, were about how to get down to street level and where to catch Muni and Golden Gate Transit buses or BART. AC Transit ambassadors wearing neongreen vests barked out directions: “This way to the escalators!”
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 26 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.
Lyles said one of the transit center’s biggest attractions is the reduced travel time because of the busesonly ramp off the Bay Bridge into the terminal. Using the ramp cuts off an average of five to 10 minutes compared with traveling city streets to the temporary transbay terminal a block away, he said. Passengers disembarking at the new transit center reported trips about six to seven minutes quicker Monday morning.
Greyhound is expected to make the move in a few weeks, and negotiations with Amtrak, which runs buses that connect with trains in Emeryville, are progressing, officials said. Several Muni and Golden Gate Transit buses are already stopping in a plaza just outside the center.
Most of the passengers climbing off transbay buses headed down escalators into the center’s Grand Hall and Fremont or Mission streets, but some headed up a floor to the rooftop park. They were greeted by the linear bus fountain, which sends streams of water skyward whenever a bus passes below.
While the park is an obvious draw, the transit center will soon have more attractions. It will eventually house businesses that include 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 and runs a cablesupported gondola from the plaza outside Salesforce Tower to the park.