The planned $8.26 billion expansion of San Francisco's rail network is now set to move forward after infrastructure consulting firm AECOM was appointed to provide program management and construction management services.
The Downtown Rail Extension (DTX) project, also known as the “Portal,” will extend Caltrain service from its current terminal at Fourth and King Streets to the Salesforce Transit Center and accommodate future California High-Speed Rail service.
Once completed, the extension is expected to carry 90,000 passengers daily and provide connections to eleven Bay Area transit systems.
According to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), the planned total length of the portal is approximately 3.5 kilometers.
Transbay Joint Powers Authority
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority estimated the total cost of the project at around $8.26 billion in 2023 and projected completion in the 2030s.
The multimodal transportation hub “will contribute to transformative mobility and environmental benefits for the Bay Area and beyond,” said Drew Jeter, CEO of AECOM’s global program management business.
According to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the system will travel from the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin in less than three hours.
The Portal project is the second phase of TJPA's $12 billion Transbay Program. The first phase involved expanding the Transbay Terminal in downtown San Francisco into the Salesforce Transit Center.
Newsweek The Transbay Joint Powers Authority emailed outside of normal business hours seeking comment.
Transbay Joint Powers Authority
In June, designs for four new stations on California's long-awaited high-speed rail line – Merced, Bakersfield, Fresno and Kings Tulare – were unveiled.
According to current plans, the first sections of the high-speed rail project are scheduled to go into operation between 2030 and 2033.
Rail expansions are also planned in several other US states.
A 5- to 6-mile extension of Chicago's Red Line – first conceived 50 years ago – is set to begin construction after the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) awarded construction contracts for the project.
According to CTA, the project is the largest in the organization's history and will provide faster connections from the Far South Side to the rest of Chicago.
In Hawaii, Honolulu's Skyline, a rapid transit system that aims to become the first fully automated, driverless light rail system in the United States, recently received the green light for its next phase, which will include six stations and about 3 miles of elevated track. This new section is scheduled to be completed by 2030.
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