I-280 near Mission Bay would be razed in Caltrain tunnel plan
“A big game changer” is how one city official described the plan, which planners unveiled last week at a closed-door meeting with representatives of Caltrans, Caltrain, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and other transportation agencies. City officials plan to go public with their ideas next month, and there is already talk of a ballot measure down the road to seek public backing for whatever emerges as the final scheme. Lee spokeswoman Christine Falvey called Mission Bay and the southeastern waterfront “exciting areas for growth and new housing,” and said the mayor believes the track-realignment plan could make for “a key transit link for the neighborhood and the region for the future.” [...] the city has been awarded $1.7 million in grants from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and others to study the idea. [...] the plan has been to extend Caltrain and envisioned high-speed rail service from the Fourth and King station to the new Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission streets. The rail agency said it was “difficult to evaluate in the absence of any meaningful and in-depth technical review,” and that officials were “disappointed” the city had omitted any discussion of keeping the Fourth and King rail yard. Adam Alberti, spokesman for the Transbay Transit Authority that is building the new downtown terminal, said that “our focus continues to be on bringing the rail into the new transit center as soon as possible after it opens in late 2017” — a not-so-subtle hint that they’re worried the track reconfiguration could result in costly delays. San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, who has been the point man on transportation issues on the board, said the city was looking at spending billions of dollars to extend Caltrain and high-speed rail downtown and “we need to make sure ... we get it right.”