On Wednesday, June 24th a press conference was held on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall.  The purpose of the event was to stress the importance of getting Caltrain extended into downtown San Francisco without further delay.  The following  organizations participated:

• Bay Area Transportation Working Group
• Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods (comprised of 46 San Francisco Neighborhood Organizations)
• Sierra Club (with 6,000 San Francisco members)
• Livable City
• Friends of Caltrain
• San Francisco Tomorrow
• RailPAC (Rail Passengers Association of California)
• TRAC (Train Riders Association of California)
• Transit Riders Union
• Bay Rail Alliance
• SaveMuni
• Mission Bay Alliance

When Caltrain is extended from its current terminal at 4th and King Streets to the new Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco it will take tens of thousands of cars off West Bay streets and highways.  This makes the DTX project the most significant Bay Area transportation improvement to come along since the original BART program conceived in the 1950’s.  Despite this, funding for the 1.3 mile Caltrain Extension (DTX) remains up in the air while Mayor Lee studies multi-billion dollar plans that would flood the Mission Bay and Mission District with cars in order to pack more development into Mission Bay.

Virtually every speaker urged the San Francisco Mayor and Supervisors to get fully behind DTX; to give it the political backing and support it deserves.