SF’s Transbay Terminal to Benefit from Influx of Funds

February 1, 2010
By Allison Landa

Federal stimulus funds totaling $400 million plus a cash infusion to the tune of $171 million will provide funding for a significant part of the renovation of San Francisco’s Transbay bus terminal.

Last week U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that $400 million in stimulus funds have been earmarked for the project – specifically to build below grade train levels of the transit center. It was also announced last week that the Transbay Joint Powers Authority had closed on the $171 million loan from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. Officials said that stimulus funds were the last piece of the financing puzzle for the project, and that demolition of the current Transbay Terminal should take place this spring.

The stimulus funds are part of a $2.25 billion grant to build a high-speed rail system between Northern and Southern California. Meanwhile, the money will fund 14 percent of the project’s first phase, an above-ground section of the train station. Phase I’s capital costs are expected to total $1.2 billion.

“This is a very important milestone that brings our collective vision of the Transbay Transit Center one step closer to reality,” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “With this funding today and positive news later this winter on our stimulus money request, we can begin actual construction on this critical project and begin creating thousands of jobs.”

The $4 billion project is slated to replace the city’s worse-for-wear Transbay terminal with a modern multi-modal transit center meant to centralize transportation in the region. Construction began on the temporary terminal in December 2008.