More on Metro's downtown station

Today's Chronicle has some details of Metro's proposed intermodal terminal, including basics of the complex's design.

According to design sketches presented at a public meeting last week, the centerpiece of the terminal — which will connect bus, light rail and commuter rail lines just north of downtown — will be a 400-foot-wide circular plaza called "the Great Space," featuring "greenery, an open-air market and other amenities." Sort of an outdoor lobby, we suppose. Jim Gast, Metro's director of architecture and urban design, showed photos of Jackson Square in New Orleans, Dupont Circle in DC and the Spanish Steps in Rome to illustrate what spaces like that can do for a city — but of course, none of them were designed to be the front end of a public transit station. The northern end of MetroRail's Red Line would be extended to the station; the tracks "would rise about 30 feet onto the plaza," allowing people to disembark right in the middle of the Great Space. The proposed north rail bus line would depart downstairs, leaving the terminal to the west, then curving back to North Main Street. (If ridership increases enough to convert the North Line to trains, the tracks will go right through the station and riders won't have to transfer.)

Elsewhere in the station, commuter rail lines from the west and northwest would enter from the west and the East End and Southeast non-light rail lines would come in from the east. Left out of the mix is the proposed University Line, which will cross the Red Line around Wheeler, on the southern end of Midtown. The downtown terminal will initially offer four bays for Metro buses, with room for 10 more, and parking lots with room for 2,000 vehicles.

The intermodal terminal is planned for 17.5 acres of the old Hardy Rail Yards and Union Pacific tracks. Though there wasn't "vocal opposition" to the plan at the meeting, the Chron reports that some people in the neighborhood are worried that local businesses won't survive construction and traffic changes. No word yet on a timetable for building the terminal, assuming things move ahead as planned.

Photo by flickr user jahpoetess