A shiny new rail and bus station in the Bay Area is now open in downtown San Francisco after being in the works for two decades. Salesforce Transit Center, which takes up three blocks just south of Mission Street in the South of Market neighborhood, is now a main connectivity hive for Muni buses (which connect the suburbs and East Bay to the center) and Amtrak and is expected to handle around 45 million passengers a year.
Eventually, Salesforce, named for the next-door skyscraper occupied by the cloud tech giant, will be a high-speed rail and commuter train hub and stopoff for the proposed California Light Rail that would connect Northern and Southern California. But don't hold your breath: If it happens, it'll be by 2028. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), which connects downtown to the airport, won't be routed there either; passengers will still take it to or from Mission, Market, and the Ferry Building if they want to get to SFO.
So what's in it for the non-commuter, you ask? A ton. The $2.2 billion complex—itself a landmark for the undulating crystalline 'skin' exterior and sun-flooded central entrance hall, the work of architects Pelli Clarke Pelli, who handled New York's MoMA expansion in 2016—has a 5.5-acre rooftop park and plans for restaurants and retail. Already mobbed with locals and travelers, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, the park, like a San Francisco High Line, has open grassy areas, a playground, and kiosks with books, art supplies, and board games should you want a game of Scrabble in the sun. Bonus: an outdoor amphitheater up there will host performances at night. And how cool is this—in September, a gondola will usher people up to the park from the street below (word is the 10 access points from the transit center are more convenient, but still...).
Spaces on the station's ground floor will eventually be filled with dining and shopping options. But for now, hungry travelers can hit up the fleet of food trucks parked outside (which sounds way better to us anyway). After all, San Francisco's unwritten law states when a taco truck is in sight, you go with it. Especially when there's an epic park to eat in, directly above.
