The Salesforce Transit Center is a transit center in downtown San Francisco, several blocks from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and is next to the Salesforce Tower. The transit center was opened in 2018, and is a public building, with sponsorship from Salesforce.

The building is four city blocks long, three stories tall, and has a rooftop park, complete with trees, lawns, a fountain, an amphitheatre and a playground. The interior of the transit center is also architecturally innovative and beautiful, with swooping white pillars and decorated floors. And free wi-fi, of course. If you will forgive the exagerration, the Salesforce Transit Center is basically the aesthetics of the Starship Enterprise applied to a bus station. I have been there a few times, and at least when it was new, it did seem like a very shiny and comfortable place.

The transit center serves many different transit agencies, including San Francisco's MUNI, Alameda County's AC Transit, San Mateo's buses, as well as buses from the North Bay. It is also the connecting point for Amtrak thruway buses coming from Emeryville Station, and Greyhound busses coming from Arcata and Eureka. In fact, from what I can tell, the Salesforce Transit Center seems to be more of a transit center for intermediate and long range transit, instead of local buses around San Francisco. The station also doesn't have direct contacts to either the BART system, or the MUNI Light Rail system, which are in tunnels a few blocks away---which while normally accessible, might be difficult to find for a tired and burdened traveler. That means that currently there is no direct service between Salesforce Transit Center and San Francisco International Airport. Apparently, within the next few years, CalTrans train lines to San Jose will open in a subsurface level, but right now, there is no access to any of the bay area's many rail services at the transit center.

I have noticed at time that there is a "nifty" factor in transit planning where providing amenities and aesthetics is seen as the major thing that will draw travellers to transit. And while free wifi and vending machines with USB airbuds are nice, the major thing that draws people to transit is convenience. Despite being a great building, the placement of the Salesforce Transit Center makes many trips inconvenient. That is not anyone's fault--- it has to do with unavoidable geographical issues. But my own opinion is that the success of transit hubs is how well they connect different forms of transit together, and not what type of fun features they offer passengers.



https://salesforcetransitcenter.com/

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