San Francisco transit center to reopen July 1 — but not for transit NEWSWIRE

SAN FRANCISCO — The Transbay Transit Center, closed since last September, will reopen July 1 — but not, initially, for its primary use as a bus terminal.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the $2.2-billion transit facility, which closed just six weeks after its August 2018 opening because of cracks in two major steel support beams, will reopen its three-block long rooftop park, as well the building itself, on that date. Muni and Golden Gate Transit buses will return later in July, and the services which use the facility’s connection to the Bay Bridge — Greyhound, Westcat Lynx, and AC Transit — will begin in late summer.

The bus delay reflects retraining of drivers, rerouting of current service, and ongoing repairs at the transit center. 

The reopening date was set shortly after the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which oversees the structure, received a report from an independent engineering panel which approved the repairs to the cracked beams. [See “Engineering panel clears San Francisco transit center for reopening,” Trains News Wire, June 12.] Eventually, the terminal is also to be the San Francisco station for California’s high speed rail system, which is in its own limbo since Gov. Gavin Newsom put much of the project on hold. [See “California governor sinks SF-LA high speed rail plans,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 12, 2019.]