Hacker News Reader

Comment by mmanfrin | Hacker News Reader

The absurdity of this thing not being directly connected to BART nor Caltrain is so, pardon my language, unbelievably fucking stupid. This could have been the nexus between local transit, local tain, local bus, and interstate train (HSR). But instead it's a bus station.

View on HN

I think the BART to SFO is a good idea and should have been built in from the start. I'm not convinced that BART, Caltrain, bus, HSR, local rail all have to converge on one spot in San Francisco.

CalTrain has 55,000 daily riders. AC Transit 15,000. BART, a lot. Are there any economies of scale of putting all those people in one place? Does this density bring anything useful?

CalTrain connects with BART in Millbrae. AC Transit connects with BART in many places. The Capitol Corridor connects with BART in Richmond. Does this need duplication in SF?

Yes, having one place in the most congested part of the city where all people can find their way home is very useful. Having to take BART to Milbrae before switching to Caltrain is far more annoying than getting directly on Caltrain. Same for any other transfer.

Yes, it is the most congested part of the city and centralizing the transit hub will make it more congested. I'd rather take BART to Millbrae than fight through downtown to get to the Transit Center. That's insane.

Agreed. I think there is a plan to connect to BART and MUNI trains via a tunnel that runs under Beale Street. But that's part of the "unlikely-in-our-lifetimes" 2nd phase.

wow. so I imagine Amtrak also will not connect there?

The closest Amtrak connection is on the other side of the bay in Emeryville.

I understand Amtrak used to come across the former Bay Bridge, but that was removed for car use... hence the ridiculous thing where you have to get off the train, take an Amtrak bus to Oakland, and then catch another train.

I believe you are thinking of the Key System (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_System) which crossed the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. Amtrak never crossed it.

Ah.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com