Eyes Under the Street: A Tour of the Transbay Train Box

This wraps up the first week of operations for the new Salesforce Transit Center, phase 1. Reviews are in, and most people seem to love the rooftop park and the grand design of the facility. But what about phase 2, the train station below it–and the thing that makes it the future Grand Central Station of the West?

This morning, Streetsblog got a private tour of the two subterranean levels of the Transit Center–the future train station mezzanine and the train platform level below it. Photographs can’t really do justice to the breathtaking scale of the facility, which will some day house both Caltrain and California high-speed rail. But when you walk through the grand hall and other street-level parts of the new transit center, here’s a look at what’s below your feet:

Natural light will get all the way down to the tracks via the ‘oculus’ skylight that stretches through all levels of the facility. There will be more retail on the mezzanine level, and there will be a direct pedestrian connection under Beale Street to BART and Muni at Embarcadero. And as previously reported, the powers that be are nearly finished hashing out details on the train track alignment from 4th and King to the Transit Center.

The first trains are scheduled to arrive no sooner than 2026. More pictures below.

And here’s a link to a video rendering of what the train level will look like when it’s done.