Below are a few ideas I’ve put together. I’ve included five feet of sea level rise as a reference, as it would seem to be wise to include sea level rise into the planning when the infrastructure will be around for 100 to 150 years.
All of the options attempt to achieve the following:
- A second transbay crossing for capacity increase and redundancy (2 tracks or bores)
- In some cases a third crossing is included for a total of (4 tracks or bores)
- A Downtown San Francisco station where most of the ridership goes
- A transfer station between an existing Downtown Market St station and the new 2nd Tube in the event that the original Transbay Tube is shut down for major repairs
- Focus on the Transbay Transit Center as the major transportation hub, especially because it will eventually have High Speed Rail.
- Create stations in areas that are developing and lack a regional station or to areas that could accommodate significant new growth in the future.
Note that whichever idea gets put forward to eventually build will be built in phases. In the maps shown its assumed that the first phase of these regional rail plans would be the Downtown Extension (DTX), linking Caltrain and HSR to the Transbay Transit Center (aka Transbay Center). The second phase could be either a 2nd tube for BART, Caltrain or both, and later a third transbay crossing, or new rail westward into San Francisco.
Avoiding Sea Level Rise Zones
4 bores
Caltrain: 7th St and Howard to Transbay Center
BART: 2nd St and Post St to Cathedral Van Ness
Transfers: Montgomery and the Transbay Center would be connected by a new Mission Transbay BART station under 2nd Street. It would mean you could transfer from Caltrain to BART along Market St, or to the new BART line to reach places like Cathedral Van Ness or to Muni Metro to reach Castro Station.
When the First Transbay Tube is shut down, passengers from BART line in SF and peninsula would cross bay by transferring to new BART line at Montgomery/Mission Transbay station.
New Station Areas: Showplace Brannan, Cathedral Van Ness
The Realistic and Practical
2 bores – BART Only
Caltrain: Townsend St and 2nd St to Transbay Center
BART: Mission St and Geary to Fillmore
Transfers: Embarcadero and the Transbay Center would be connected by a new Fremont Transbay BART station under Mission Street. It would mean you could transfer from Caltrain to BART along Market St, or to the new BART line to reach places like Fillmore or to Muni Metro to reach Church Station.
When the First Transbay Tube is shut down, passengers from BART line in SF and peninsula would cross bay by transferring to new BART line at Embarcadero station to Fremont Transbay station.
New Station Areas: Fillmore, Cathedral Van Ness
Subway Style Commuter Service
2 bores – Caltrain/HSR Only
Caltrain: Townsend St and 2nd St to Transbay Center
BART: linked to Caltrain Crossing with transfer at Transbay Transit Center & Embarcadero
Transfers: Embarcadero and the Transbay Center would be connected by the planned pedestrian tunnel under Beale Street. It would mean you could transfer from Caltrain to BART along Market St, or to Muni Metro to reach West Portal Station.
When the First Transbay Tube is shut down, passengers from BART line in SF and peninsula would cross bay by transferring to the Caltrain Transbay line at Embarcadero station.
New Station Areas: none
SoMa FiDi Spread
2 bores – BART Only
Caltrain: 3rd St Mission Bay to 2nd St to Transbay Transit Center
BART: Montgomery St to 2nd St to Townsend to Division and back to Mission BART line.
Transfers: Montgomery and the Transbay Center would be connected by a new Mission Transbay BART station under 2nd Street. It would mean you could transfer from BART along Market Street to to Caltrain to get to Bayshore, or to the new BART line to reach places like 6th & Townsend or to Muni Metro to reach Van Ness Station.
When the First Transbay Tube is shut down, passengers from BART line in SF and peninsula would cross bay by either transferring to new BART line at Montgomery Station to Mission Transbay station, or if they are south of Civic Center, they would take a direct train to the East Bay.
New Station Areas: Showplace Square, Potrero and Division, Columbus
Seawall Looop
4 bores – BART Only
Caltrain: Terry Francois in Mission Bay to Embarcadero to Transbay Transit Center. Rail would be within a new seawall to protect Mission Bay and SoMa from sea level rise in this scenario. Trains headed to Oakland would go down 2nd Street, then pass under Rincon Hill to a tunnel or bridge leaving San Francisco at Pier 30/32.
BART: Main Street and/or Beale to Pine Street to Geary St ending at Fillmore Station.
Transfers: Embarcadero and the Transbay Center would be connected by planned Beale St pedestrian tunnel. BART passengers using the new Transbay crossing would transfer to the Transbay Center at a Howard St station between Beale and Maine.
When the First Transbay Tube is shut down, passengers from BART line in SF and peninsula would cross bay by transferring to new BART line at Embarcadero Station via the Transbay Center.
New Station Areas: Mission Rock, Kearny & Pine, Cathedral Hill, Fillmore
If I could choose the option myself, I would selection the “Avoiding Sea Level Rise Zones”. It creates two new stations in SoMa near Mission Bay, while still providing access to the existing 4th & King Caltrain station area that would eventually have that station closed. Note that 4th & King would still have Muni Metro service from the N-Judah and the T-Third. In addition, the Geary corridor gets a line that will eventually go further west.
The main challenge to this idea is that the Caltrain DTX alignment on 7th and Howard Streets is not environmentally approved nor is it currently listed as one of the alignments in the San Francisco Planning Department RAB Study. In addition it would require going under Moscone Center along Howard St. However, my back of the envelope calculations indicate there is sufficient distance between Moscone and the Transbay Center for the train to sufficiently go under the convention center while getting to the shallower Transbay Center -2 train level.
My practical, realist side says that the DTX alignment will most likely follow its approved line on Townsend and 2nd, or along 3rd St and 2nd St. My dream of a double decker BART and Caltrain tunnel under 2nd Street seems far fetched due to getting logistics of two big projects (and agencies) lined up (BART & Caltrain/HSR). Thus the “Realistic and Practical” option is our best bet to getting a DTX tunnel, a 2nd Transbay Crossing and Geary BART. Connecting a 2nd Tranbay BART back to the original Mission/Daly City BART line is unnecessary and will not bolster operations in the BART system.
If sea level rise accelerates or addressing at risk areas becomes a higher priority, then creating a seawall BART, or truly making rail avoid risk zones should be prioritized in the choice of alignments for all rail services.
I’ll be putting up a poll and hopefully some GIF’s up to show the phasing of these ideas. Stay tuned.
As always I welcome feedback, questions, criticisms, and new ideas. For me, we need to get this moving forward either way.
