SAN FRANCISCO — There’s still no estimate of a reopening for San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center, so its temporary replacement has received a bit more permanence.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Clipper card kiosks, which allow passengers to buy or add money to their fare cards, have been reinstalled by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission at the temporary Transbay terminal, at a cost of about $20,000.
The kiosks were removed when the new facility opened in August, but when the Transit Center closed because of a pair of cracked support beams six weeks later, bus service returned to the old spot — but without the card kiosks, to the inconvenience of the 14,000 riders who use the facility.
Analysis of the beams, originally projected for mid-November, is still not complete. That has to be done before engineers can come up with a repair plan. [See “Still no date for reopening of San Francisco’s transit center,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 12, 2018.]
While it is currently used only by buses, the Transbay Transit Center is eventually to be the San Francisco terminal for the California High Speed Rail system.
This is very unsettling. If it cracks on it’s own, It really makes you wonder if if the whole thing would just pancake in an earthquake.