SF Transportation Authority funds downtown revival, Caltrain ADA upgrades, ferry landing

Powell Street is where many San Franciscans will notice the new money first: wider sidewalks, new curb ramps at Powell and O’Farrell streets, updated lighting, landscaping and better loading and cable car stops between O’Farrell and Geary streets. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority set aside $4 million for that work as part of a $9.8 million package aimed at places riders and taxpayers can see and use quickly.

The Powell Street project stretches from Market Street to Geary Street and is part of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Heart of the City Executive Directive 25-04 push to help downtown recover. San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and San Francisco Public Works are coordinating construction with transit service, and the project is expected to open by December 2027. The Transportation Authority has also been pursuing regional wayfinding improvements at Powell station, another sign that the agency is trying to make downtown feel easier to navigate as much as easier to reach.

The second major piece of the package goes to Caltrain’s 22nd Street Station, where $1.3 million will pay for design work on accessibility upgrades. The station sits below street level and is reachable only by stairs, making it Caltrain’s only regular-service station in San Francisco that is not currently wheelchair accessible. A 2023 feasibility study recommended a southbound ramp and a northbound ramp, and the station was carrying about 1,900 daily riders before the pandemic, putting it among Caltrain’s top ten stations by ridership. Caltrain expects to finish design by summer 2027 and is seeking construction money to put the project in service by June 2029.

The third allocation, $4.5 million, will help advance a new Mission Bay Ferry Landing next to 16th Street. The planned landing will have a single float and two berths, giving Mission Bay and nearby neighborhoods another regional ferry connection. The Port of San Francisco has already finished earlier phases of work, including removing the former Pier 64 and completing underwater preparatory work. Officials have framed the project as a way to relieve overcrowding in the regional transit system and add resiliency if an earthquake or service disruption knocks out other routes.

The funding package landed days after Lurie announced the first update in five years to San Francisco’s Climate Action Plan. SFCTA said transportation accounts for 45% of city emissions and that the plan targets electrifying all light-duty vehicles and cutting driving mileage 30% below 2019 levels by 2040. The agency said it helped shape the transportation emissions strategy, technical analysis and baseline emissions inventory, while also pointing to ongoing work on Eco-Friendly Downtown Delivery, The Portal and the Bayview Caltrain Station. The same half-cent sales tax that helps pay for these projects traces back to Proposition L, approved by voters in November 2022 and extending a program SFCTA has administered since 1990.