A four-block bus terminal with a park on the roof, at 425 Mission Street. Eleven transport systems use it — and the train it was built for hasn't arrived yet. Here's what actually runs from where.
The single most useful thing to know here is that services are split across two levels and two nearby kerbside stops. Turn up at the wrong one and you'll watch your bus leave from three floors away.
Source: TJPA transportation directory, checked July 2026. Call 511 for regional trip planning.
Every operator here sets its own fares, and Clipper works on all of them. The trips people actually ask about:
| Trip | Adult fare |
|---|---|
| AC Transit Transbay to the East Bay | $6.50 |
| AC Transit local (within the East Bay) | $2.75 Clipper · $3.00 cash |
| Golden Gate Transit to Sausalito, Mill Valley, Tiburon, Larkspur, San Rafael | $9.00 cash |
| Golden Gate Transit to Novato | $10.25 cash |
| Golden Gate Transit to Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa | $15.00 cash |
| Muni (5, 7, 25, 38 and the rest) | $2.85 Clipper · $3.00 cash |
| SamTrans down the Peninsula or to SFO | $2.05 Clipper · $2.25 cash |
Sources: AC Transit fares, Golden Gate Transit fares, SFMTA fares, SamTrans fares, checked July 2026.
Pay Golden Gate Transit with Clipper or a bank card, not cash. Golden Gate says contactless payment is generally about 20% cheaper than the cash fare (10% within Marin, and no extra discount between the East Bay and San Francisco). On a $15 Santa Rosa run that's real money. There are Clipper kiosks in Shaw Alley and on the third floor if you need a card.
Transferring to Muni? Clipper takes $2.85 off the adult Muni fare when you arrive on a connecting agency within two hours — which effectively makes the Muni leg free after an AC Transit or Golden Gate trip. How the regional fare system fits together →
The Transit Center covers nearly four city blocks, bounded by Beale, Minna, 2nd, and Natoma streets, with multiple entrances. The main one is Salesforce Plaza at 425 Mission Street, where Mission crosses Fremont.
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Nearest BART and Muni Metro | Embarcadero & Montgomery, 1 block north |
| Bus deck operating hours | 5:00 am – 1:00 am |
| Grand Hall | Daily 5:00 am – 10:00 pm |
| After-hours bus access | Beale St or First St elevators to floor 3 |
| Ways up to the roof park | 5 elevator sets + 1 escalator |
| Security | 24 hours · (415) 597-5000 ext. 3 |
Source: TJPA FAQ.
The BART connection is a one-block walk. Head north on Fremont to Market Street for Embarcadero or Montgomery — both served by every BART line through San Francisco and by Muni Metro on the level above. That walk is what makes this building work as a regional interchange, since nothing rail-based enters it.
Above the bus deck sits a free public park of 5.4 acres — genuinely one of the better places downtown to kill an hour before a bus. A walking trail circles the perimeter past 13 mini botanical gardens labelled with interpretive signs, planted with redwoods, bamboo, and palms, with lawns, fountains, a children's play area, and an amphitheatre lawn that holds around 1,000 people.
| Season | Park hours |
|---|---|
| May 1 – October 31 | 6:00 am – 9:00 pm |
| November 1 – April 30 | 6:00 am – 8:00 pm |
Hours subject to change — confirm on the official Salesforce Park page, which also lists free events and classes.
Waiting for a Transbay bus? Go up instead of sitting on the deck. Five sets of elevators and an escalator reach the park from street level, and the glass floor over the Main Plaza looks straight down into the Grand Hall.
In Salesforce Park and on the Level 3 bus deck.
"TransbayWiFi" — open a browser and accept the usage policy.
Shaw Alley and the third floor, for buying or loading a card.
Tenants in the Grand Hall and around the ground floor; the TJPA keeps a current retail directory.
Racks around the perimeter; lockers and city bike share at Natoma Pedestrian Way near 2nd Street.
None. There is no left-luggage office anywhere in the building.
No bag storage is the gap that catches people out. Arriving on a Transbay bus with a late flight, or between a checkout and a night coach, means you're carrying everything. The nearest practical answer is a commercial storage network — shops and hotels around downtown that hold bags by the day or the hour.
Those two are affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no cost to you. They're different pricing models, not competing quotes: Bounce charges a flat daily rate, LuggageHero charges by the hour plus a per-bag fee. How this works →
Two realistic options, and they're not close:
BART, via a one-block walk. Head north on Fremont to Embarcadero or Montgomery, take an SFO-bound Yellow or Red line train — $11.80, about 30 minutes — then the free AirTrain to your terminal. Full comparison of routes to SFO →
SamTrans 292, from the bus deck itself. $2.25 cash, $2.05 with Clipper, straight to the airport terminals with no transfer — but it's a local bus that stops everywhere, so it takes considerably longer. Its real value is that SamTrans runs 24 hours from SFO, covering the window when BART is shut.
The Transit Center was designed as the "Grand Central Station of the West", and it was built with a rail level below street grade. But the tunnel that would bring Caltrain — and eventually California high-speed rail — the last mile and a half from 4th & King into the building is a separate project: the Portal, previously known as the Downtown Extension or DTX. It is in development, not in service.
So today this is a bus terminal with a park on top and an empty train box underneath. Caltrain still terminates at 4th & King in Mission Bay, about two kilometres southwest.
The Transit Center sits in the Financial District/SOMA edge, which is dense with hotels and a walk from both BART and the Ferry Building. Affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no cost to you. How this works →
Operators, levels, and hours verified against the TJPA's official pages in July 2026. Something outdated? Report an error →