City decides route for Caltrain extension to Transbay Terminal

By Adam Brinklow : curbed – excerpt

Path plan called “a 100-year decision,” compared to BART and Golden Gate Bridge at hearing

On Tuesday, the San Francisco County Transit Authority [SFCTA]—a body composed of members of the Board of Supervisors and separate from SFMTA—decided on a $6.1 billion plan to connect Caltrain to the new Transbay Transit Terminal via a tunnel underneath Pennsylvania Avenue.

The unanimous SFCTA vote capped off months of planning and speculation on a proposal that stretches back more than a decade.

The city had considered three potential paths for the rail extension, but Tuesday’s Planning Department presentation to SFCTA favored the Pennsylvania option…

Rahaim called the vote for the Pennsylvania alignment “a 100-year decision.”

At the hearing, Supervisor Malia Cohen, whose district most of the route runs through, said that community feedback thus far was “mostly negative.”

But she compared the extension to BART and the Golden Gate Bridge—two other huge transit plans that were contentious at the time but in hindsight no-brainers—and predicted that the route would garner popular support in the long run…

Note that approval from many other agencies is needed for the full proposal to move forward… (more)