Transbay Terminal

BayRail Alliance and Transbay Terminal

1993 — PR2000 member Michael Kiesling re-invigorates Caltrain SF extension with his affordable proposal to tunnel the line to the Transbay Terminal. The PCJPB purchases the rights to Kiesling's "Emperor Norton" proposal for the nominal sum of $10.

1994-95 — Kiesling’s downtown SF extension alternative nearly eliminated when SF Board of Supervisors approves studies for project. Over a year later, a variant of Kiesling’s plan is found to be the only feasible option. Many Caltrain improvements are put on hold while BART-SFO extension plan moves forward. PR2000 fights proposed JPB ordinance to limit free speech at stations.

1996-98 — San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown opposes the Caltrain downtown extension, and blocks completion of studies needed to build it. This results in reprogramming of funds to “Rapid Rail” plan, emphasizing rehabilitation of rail line before any major upgrades. After SF activists including PR2000 campaign to place a ballot initiative to move the downtown extension project forward, Mayor Willie Brown reverses his position again, to support the downtown extension, shortly before Prop H qualifies for the ballot.

November 2, 1999 — After a campaign by SF-based groups and PR2000, SF voters pass Prop. H with 69% of the vote. It requires city officials to seek funding for, and build, Caltrain downtown extension to a new or rebuilt terminal on the present site of the Transbay Transit Terminal, to protect right-of-way for the extension, and also to "pursue electrification of the Caltrain line from San Francisco to San Jose prior to or concurrent with the extension of Caltrain downtown".

2001 — PR2000 changes its name to BayRail Alliance and launches a campaign for the passage of Assembly Bill 1419, which the state legislature approves by a 1-vote margin, to transfer Transbay Terminal land and development rights from Caltrans to San Francisco Redevelopment Agency to build new terminal and Caltrain extension. The Redevelopment Agency has pledged all of the proceeds (tax increment) from the development to the rebuilding of the Transbay Terminal and Caltrain Downtown extension. This amount is estimated at $1.2B of the $1.8B cost of the project.Governor Davis vetoes the bill, but directs Caltrans to support the land transfer administratively.

April 22, 2004 — BayRail Alliance, working with other groups in San Francisco, overcomes opposition from a greedy developer and some neighborhood interests and convinces the SF Board of Supervisors to approve environmental documents for the Transbay Terminal project, which includes extending Caltrain and future high-speed rail.

June 15, 2004 — In an exhausting hearing that ended past 3 a.m. the next day, BayRail Alliance and other groups succeed in getting the SF Board of Supervisors to unanimously uphold the Transbay EIR against appeals filed by some neighborhood interests and a private developer.

June 7, 2005 — BayRail Alliance, working with TRANSDEF, files a “friend of the court” (amicus) brief along with the Sierra Club, TRAC, San Francisco Tomorrow, and TALC, requesting speedy appeal of a ruling on the Transbay Terminal project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR). A ruling by a judge in favor of private developer Jack Myers has halted preliminary planning and engineering for the project. The groups ask the appeals court to stay (halt) the judge’s order pending appeal. This succeeds in producing a speedy stay of the order, allowing planning and engineering for the Transbay Project to proceed. Myers later drops the appeal after the City of San Francisco agrees to pay $34 million to acquire his property through eminent domain.