South San Francisco station (Caltrain)

South San Francisco
A northbound train at South San Francisco station in 2018
Location 590 Dubuque Avenue
South San Francisco, California
Coordinates 37°39′21″N 122°24′18″W / 37.65583°N 122.40500°W / 37.65583; -122.40500Coordinates: 37°39′21″N 122°24′18″W / 37.65583°N 122.40500°W / 37.65583; -122.40500
Owned by Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board
Line(s) Peninsula Subdivision[1]
Platforms 1 side platform, 1 island platform
Tracks 5
Connections Alliance: Oyster Point, Utah Grand
Construction
Bicycle facilities Lockers available
Disabled access Southbound platform only
Other information
Fare zone 1
History
Rebuilt 2019 (under construction)
Traffic
Passengers (2017) 501 per weekday[2]
Services
Preceding station   Caltrain   Following station
Local
toward Tamien
Gilroy during peak hours
Limited-stop
toward Tamien
Gilroy during peak hours

South San Francisco is a Caltrain station in South San Francisco, California, served by local and limited-stop trains. The station is on the east side of Highway 101 beneath East Grand Avenue; downtown South San Francisco is across the freeway. It is currently undergoing a substantial modernization and expansion project, scheduled to be completed in summer 2019.

History

A depot for South San Francisco was built in 1909 shortly after the completion of the Bayshore Cutoff, with an entrance on Grand Avenue.[3][4] Prior to that, a smaller station existed at least as early as 1898.[5] The 1909 building was demolished in the late 1950s and replaced with a smaller building with an entrance off Dubuque.[6][7]

Current status

A southbound train holds outside the station while passengers board a northbound train

The station was built before the Bayshore Freeway[3] and retains many of the aspects common to older, unmodernized stations along the Peninsula Commute; the southbound platform is not ADA-compliant, and riders for northbound trains must wait for the northbound train to come to a complete stop before crossing the southbound track to a narrow boarding platform between the tracks,[8] thus requiring the so-called "hold-out" rule (GCOR 6.30)—if a train is stopped for passengers, an approaching train in the opposite direction on the other track must wait outside the station.[9][10] In 2012, a southbound Baby Bullet express train passing through the station narrowly avoided striking passengers for a northbound train stopped at South San Francisco. The Baby Bullet express did not have a scheduled stop at the station and had ignored the hold-out rule.[11]

South San Francisco is the only hold-out rule station with regular service on weekdays - Atherton, Broadway, College Park, and Stanford have limited or no weekday service - making it a bottleneck for service.

Automobiles can reach the station by turning from Grand Avenue north on Dubuque, just east of U.S. 101, and a pedestrian staircase climbs to Grand, above the station. Several SamTrans routes run near the station on Airport Boulevard, but steep ramps and tight turns make it impossible for large buses to access the station from Dubuque.[12] The south end of the parking lot features a large mural on the retaining wall for Grand Avenue entitled "Prometheus Brings Fire to Man" by artist Nicolai Larsen, painted in 1996.

Modernization

Planned South San Francisco station improvements 
  •  Existing 
  •  Future 

1
Existing station platform (under Grand Avenue overpass)
2
Rebuilt platform
3
East underpass entrance & shuttle plaza
4
West underpass entrance & downtown plaza
The new platform under construction in July 2018

In 1998, the City of South San Francisco (SSF) prepared a concept plan to relocate the station southward so that trains would stop south of the East Grand Avenue overpass in order to improve bus and pedestrian access to the station. This would allow buses currently stopping on Airport Boulevard (west of Bayshore Freeway and the station) to directly service the station and open up access from the east for employer-provided shuttles.[12][13]

In 2012 Caltrain and SSF began work on a Downtown Station Area Plan to redevelop the area around the station and make it easier to reach downtown from the station. The project would update the station by renovating the southbound platform and extending it south, and building a new northbound platform to eliminate the "hold out" rule and to be ADA-compliant. The project would include a bus and shuttle drop-off area on Airport Blvd. and an ADA-compliant pedestrian underpass to the new platform that would connect with Grand Avenue/Poletti Way (on the east) and Airport Boulevard (on the west). The west entrance would also feature a new pedestrian plaza at the southeast corner of Airport Boulevard and Grant Avenue, on right-of-way currently used as a Caltrans storage yard.[14][15]

The plan was approved in February 2015[14] and will be funded by $49.1 million in funds provided by San Mateo County Measure A, a half-cent sales tax approved by county voters in 2012.[16] Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board contributed $4 million and SSF contributed $9.2 million, including $3.3M to expand station property and remediate soil.[17]

The current plan calls for a new 700 foot (210 m)-long island platform (between northbound and southbound tracks) relocated south of the existing side platform with a pedestrian underpass connecting the platform to Grand Avenue and Poletti Drive (on the east) and Grand and Airport (on the west).[18] Although construction was scheduled to begin in 2016,[19] the design was not finalized until December 2016,[18] and groundbreaking for the modernization project was held on November 6, 2017 in a ceremony attended by State Senator Jerry Hill and SSF Mayor Pradeep Gupta.[17] The new station was projected to open in 2019,[18][19] but was delayed to August 2020 after planned underground utility relocation work was determined to be a prerequisite for construction of the new pedestrian underpass.[20]

References

  1. ↑ SMA Rail Consulting (April 2016). "California Passenger Rail NETWORK SCHEMATICS" (PDF). California Department of Transportation. p. 13.
  2. ↑ Caltrain. "2017 Annual Count Key Findings Report" (PDF). Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  3. 1 2 "South San Francisco To Have A New S.P. Station". San Francisco Call. 102 (84). 23 August 1907. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  4. ↑ "Southern Pacific Railroad depot". Bits of History. Peninsula Library System. 1909. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  5. ↑ "Southern Pacific Railroad Station". Bits of History. Peninsula Library System. 1898. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  6. ↑ "Southern Pacific Railroad station". Bits of History. Peninsula Library System. 1961. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  7. ↑ "Southern Pacific Railroad station". Bits of History. Peninsula Library System. 1967. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  8. ↑ "South San Francisco Station". Caltrain. 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  9. ↑ GCOR: General Code of Operating Rules (PDF). West Coast Railroaders Group (Report) (6th ed.). General Code of Operating Rules Committee. 2010. p. 6-15. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  10. ↑ "San Francisco to San Jose Glossary of Terms" (PDF). California High-Speed Rail Authority / Caltrain JPB. 18 February 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2017. Hold-Out Rule – The rule enforced at Caltrain stations that have only one outside boarding platform which prevents a train from entering the station while another train [is] at the station boarding or alighting passengers. Platform upgrades will allow the hold-out rule to be eliminated, either by adding a second outside boarding platform on the opposite side, or by replacing the existing platform with a center-boarding platform.
  11. ↑ Rosenberg, Mike (14 September 2012). "Terrified Caltrain passengers forced to jump out of way of train". San Mateo County Times. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  12. 1 2 "4: Transportation". South San Francisco General Plan (Report). City of South San Francisco. 2014. pp. 4–34, 4–35. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  13. ↑ "South San Francisco Caltrain Relocation Study". Dyett & Bhatia: Urban and Regional Planners. 1998. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  14. 1 2 "South San Francisco Downtown Station Area Specific Plan". City of South San Francisco. February 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  15. ↑ "South San Francisco applies for grant funding for pedestrian/bike tunnel to Caltrain". Green Caltrain. 24 October 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  16. ↑ emmas (13 February 2015). "South San Francisco Downtown Plan and new Caltrain station approved". Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition blog. Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  17. 1 2 Walsh, Austin (7 November 2017). "New Caltrain station constructin arrives". San Mateo Daily Journal. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  18. 1 2 3 "South San Francisco Caltrain Station Improvement Project". Caltrain/JPB. 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  19. 1 2 Futrell, Mike (9 February 2015). "Major Improvements Slated for South San Francisco Caltrain Station" (Press release). City of South San Francisco. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  20. ↑ "South San Francisco Station Improvement Project" (PDF). Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board. September 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  • Caltrain - South San Francisco station
  • Atkins (October 2014). South San Francisco Downtown Station Area Specific Plan: Draft Environmental Impact Report (Report). City of South San Francisco. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  • Atkins (October 2014). South San Francisco Downtown Station Area Specific Plan: Final Environmental Impact Report (Report). City of South San Francisco. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  • Boone, Andrew (10 February 2015). "Pedestrian Access to South San Francisco Caltrain Station Gets a Boost". SF Streetsblog. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
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