{"id":41673,"date":"2025-06-05T12:30:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T19:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41673"},"modified":"2025-06-05T12:30:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T19:30:51","slug":"high-speed-rail-was-supposed-to-signal-s-f-s-downtown-renaissance-now-it-feels-like-a-mirage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/high-speed-rail-was-supposed-to-signal-s-f-s-downtown-renaissance-now-it-feels-like-a-mirage\/","title":{"rendered":"High-speed rail was supposed to signal S.F.\u2019s downtown renaissance. Now it feels like a mirage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/rachel-swan\/\">Rachel Swan<\/a>,Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>June 4, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-8.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-8.png 960w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-8-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-8-150x100.png 150w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-8-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-8-225x150.png 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A bus makes its way through the bus level of the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco in 2023. The building complex was designed with the intention that high-speed rail would eventually reach the tracks in its basement. Jessica Christian\/The Chronicle<\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dialog\/feed?app_id=137086563877087&amp;link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfchronicle.com%2Fcalifornia%2Farticle%2Fhigh-speed-rail-sf-funding-20361076.php%3Futm_campaign%3DCMS%2520Sharing%2520Tools%2520(Premium)%26utm_source%3Dfacebook.com%26utm_medium%3Dreferral&amp;name=High-speed%20rail%20was%20supposed%20to%20signal%20S.F.%E2%80%99s%20downtown%20renaissance.%20Now%20it%20feels%20like%20a%20mirage&amp;description=With%20the%20Trump%20administration%20announcing%20Wednesday%20that%20it%20would%20yank%20%244%20billion%20in%20federal%20funding%20from%20California%E2%80%99s%20high-speed%20rail%20project%2C%20it%E2%80%99s%20unclear%20when%20or%20whether%20the%20plan%20will%20be...&amp;picture=https%3A%2F%2Fs.hdnux.com%2Fphotos%2F01%2F50%2F45%2F40%2F27416593%2F3%2FrawImage.jpg&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfchronicle.com%2Fcalifornia%2Farticle%2Fhigh-speed-rail-sf-funding-20361076.php%3Futm_campaign%3DCMS%2520Sharing%2520Tools%2520(Premium)%26utm_source%3DUTMSOURCE%26utm_medium%3DUTMMEDIUM\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfchronicle.com%2Fcalifornia%2Farticle%2Fhigh-speed-rail-sf-funding-20361076.php%3Futm_campaign%3DCMS%2520Sharing%2520Tools%2520(Premium)%26utm_source%3Dt.co%26utm_medium%3Dreferral&amp;text=High-speed%20rail%20was%20supposed%20to%20signal%20S.F.%E2%80%99s%20downtown%20renaissance.%20Now%20it%20feels%20like%20a%20mirage&amp;via=sfchronicle\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/intent\/compose?text=High-speed%20rail%20was%20supposed%20to%20signal%20S.F.%E2%80%99s%20downtown%20renaissance.%20Now%20it%20feels%20like%20a%20mirage%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfchronicle.com%2Fcalifornia%2Farticle%2Fhigh-speed-rail-sf-funding-20361076.php&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfchronicle.com%2Fcalifornia%2Farticle%2Fhigh-speed-rail-sf-funding-20361076.php%3Futm_campaign%3DCMS%2520Sharing%2520Tools%2520(Premium)%26utm_source%3Dbsky.app%26utm_medium%3Dreferral\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Your%20friend%20has%20shared%20a%20San%20Francisco%20Chronicle%20link%20with%20you%3A&amp;body=High-speed%20rail%20was%20supposed%20to%20signal%20S.F.%E2%80%99s%20downtown%20renaissance.%20Now%20it%20feels%20like%20a%20mirage%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfchronicle.com%2Fcalifornia%2Farticle%2Fhigh-speed-rail-sf-funding-20361076.php%3Futm_campaign%3DCMS%2520Sharing%2520Tools%2520(Premium)%26utm_source%3Dshare-by-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%0A%0AWith%20the%20Trump%20administration%20announcing%20Wednesday%20that%20it%20would%20yank%20%244%20billion%20in%20federal%20funding%20from%20California%E2%80%99s%20high-speed%20rail%20project%2C%20it%E2%80%99s%20unclear%20when%20or%20whether%20the%20plan%20will%20be...%0A%0AThis%20message%20was%20sent%20via%20San%20Francisco%20Chronicle\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When&nbsp;Gavin Newsom served as mayor of San Francisco, he imagined the city not only as a Paris of the West, but&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/article\/New-rail-plan-a-big-setback-for-future-terminal-13612020.php\" class=\"\">as the terminus<\/a>&nbsp;of an epic rail line that stretched from Anaheim to South of Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to be building &#8230; something that is arguably a generation overdue,\u201d Newsom said during the 2010 groundbreaking ceremony for what\u2019s now the Salesforce Transit Center, where trains were supposed to glide into a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/article\/Salesforce-Transit-Center-puzzle-When-will-the-13142498.php\" class=\"\">busy concourse<\/a>&nbsp;on the subterranean level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/politics\/article\/california-high-speed-rail-trump-funding-20360823.php\" class=\"\">Trump administration pulls $4 billion in federal funding for California high-speed rail<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, 15 years later, the center is a large bus station with an art-decked terrazzo and a rooftop park, its basement still an empty concrete vault. With the Trump administration announcing Wednesday that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/politics\/article\/california-high-speed-rail-trump-funding-20360823.php\" class=\"\">it would yank $4 billion<\/a>&nbsp;in federal funding from California\u2019s high-speed rail project, it\u2019s unclear when, or whether, that vault will be filled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it may seem like a maddening mirage, high-speed rail was once considered an element of San Francisco\u2019s downtown renaissance. It was the linchpin for a new high-rise neighborhood that bloomed around the transit center, its sidewalks lined with cylindrical buildings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More importantly, the train system would help shape a transportation network aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A well-operated rail, anchored by two urban metros, would allow people to move through California without relying on airplanes and cars.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s call it a multi-modal California,\u201d said Tom Radulovich, senior policy manager at the nonprofit think tank Livable City. He conceptualizes the state as a massive transit ecosystem: Small communities that embrace walking and biking would nest into bigger metropolitan areas with robust rail lines, all threaded together by \u201clonger-haul transit\u201d \u2014 namely, passenger trains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>High-speed rail completes that picture. And to a certain extent, the long-gestating project informed plans to build out transit infrastructure in the Bay Area. BART\u2019s past discussions of a second transbay tube focused partly on whether to choose a track rail gauge to accommodate bullet trains. Caltrain spent years electrifying the corridor between San Francisco and San Jose, on the notion that high-speed rail would share it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps the most tragic example of a dream deferred is the $2.2 billion Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco, which opened in 2018 as an end point for business travelers whisked from Southern California. The transit hub concept was captivating: Merchants leased the center\u2019s retail space to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/business\/article\/With-coffee-empanadas-and-a-gym-Transbay-center-14065090.php\" class=\"\">sell coffee and empanadas<\/a>. City planners promised that once the train tracks extended downtown, Caltrain commuters who are currently dropped off in Mission Bay could step right onto Mission Street.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of fulfilling Newsom\u2019s vision, however, the transit center became a very expensive bus station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Radulovich and other transit advocates are confident that high-speed rail will eventually reach the finish line, overcoming lawsuits, ballooning costs, blown deadlines and Trump\u2019s efforts to kneecap the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs long as the political will exists (in California), we\u2019ll get there,\u201d Radulovich said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the end, it may be a patched-together system in which people have to make multiple transfers during a trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Older maps of high-speed rail had trains running from Los Angeles to San Jose and linking to Caltrain\u2019s newly electrified commuter rail on the Peninsula. More recently, state leaders have focused on constructing the Central Valley segment between&nbsp;Merced and Bakersfield.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, they hope to extend the track south toward Palmdale, where high-speed rail would&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/california\/article\/ca-high-speed-rail-las-vegas-20018173.php\" class=\"\">plug into two other bullet train lines<\/a>, the High Desert Corridor in Los Angeles, and the privately owned Brightline West route from Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Believers in urban transit still embrace that dream of a fully connected state, with no need to widen freeways or build additional runways at airports.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of the original justifications for high-speed rail that I thought were most compelling were looking at the trade-offs that were required if you had to expand airport capacity, or invest in Highway 99, which runs through cities in the Central Valley,\u201d said Sebastian Petty, a senior transportation policy adviser at the public policy nonprofit SPUR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be fair, California\u2019s population growth&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/hsr.ca.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/docs\/about\/business_plans\/2020_Business_Plan_2019_Equivalent_Capacity_Analysis_Report.pdf\" class=\"\">hasn\u2019t quite kept pace<\/a>&nbsp;with the population estimates of early high-speed rail plans. Still, the economy is booming and traffic already clogs the roads, noted Adina Levin, executive director the organization Seamless Bay Area, which aims to better integrate the region\u2019s transit lines.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Levin and others view a vast, branching rail network as the most \u201cenvironmentally sustainable\u201d option to move people through the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If California doesn\u2019t grind ahead with high-speed rail, the state might have to contend with worsening traffic in the Central Valley, or more strain on airports, Petty said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or, he added, future Californians might just have limited mobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>June 4, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/rachel-swan\/\">Rachel Swan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>REPORTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rachel Swan is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. She joined the Chronicle in 2015 after stints at several alt weekly newspapers. Born in Berkeley, she graduated from Cal with a degree in rhetoric and is now raising two daughters in El Cerrito.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SFChronicle\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rachelswan\"><\/a><a href=\"mailto:rswan@sfchronicle.com\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Rachel Swan,Reporter June 4, 2025 (SFChronicle.com) A bus makes its way through the bus level of the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco in 2023. The building complex was designed with the intention that high-speed rail would eventually reach the tracks in its basement. Jessica Christian\/The Chronicle When&nbsp;Gavin Newsom served&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/high-speed-rail-was-supposed-to-signal-s-f-s-downtown-renaissance-now-it-feels-like-a-mirage\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41675,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41673\/revisions\/41675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}