A planned $8.26 billion rail expansion in San Francisco is set to move ahead after infrastructure consulting firm AECOM was selected to provide program management and construction management services.
The Downtown Rail Extension (DTX) project, also known as the Portal, will extend the Caltrain service from its current terminal at Fourth and King streets to the Salesforce Transit Center, and will accommodate the California High-Speed Rail service in the future.
Upon completion, the extension is projected to serve 90,000 passengers daily and will connect with 11 Bay area transit systems.
The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) says the total planned construction length of the portal is approximately 2.2 miles.
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 a completion date in the 2030’s.
The multi-modal transit hub “will support transformative mobility and environmental benefits for the Bay Area and beyond,” said Drew Jeter, chief executive of AECOM’s Program Management global business line.
According to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the system will run from San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center to the Los Angeles basin in under three hours.
The Portal project is the second phase of the TJPA’s $12 billion Transbay Program. The first phase saw downtown San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal upgraded to the Salesforce Transit Center.
Newsweek has contacted the Transbay Joint Powers Authority for comment via email outside of standard working hours.
Transbay Joint Powers Authority
In June, designs were revealed for four new stations on the much-awaited California High-Speed Rail line – Merced, Bakersfield, Fresno and Kings Tulare.
The first lines for the high-speed rail project are currently scheduled to become operable between 2030 and 2033.
Rail expansions are also planned in several other U.S. states.
A 5-6 mile extension for the Chicago’s Red Line – first conceived 50 years ago – is set to get underway after the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) awarded construction contracts for the project.
According to CTA the project is the largest in the body’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 set to be the first fully automated, driverless urban light metro system in the U.S. recently received a green light for its next phase, which will include six rail stations and approximately three miles of elevated rail guideway. This new segment is set to be completed by 2030.
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