Officials scramble to overhaul San Rafael Transit Center to accommodate SMART trains

Illustration by Seamus O'Reamus 

By Mark Prado, Marin Independent Journal

POSTED: 11/17/16, 7:11 PM PST | UPDATED: 7 MINS AGO

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The San Rafael Transit Center is likely to be eventually relocated, but some renovations will be needed immediately to handle SMART trains.Robert Tong — Marin Independent Journal

The transit center in downtown San Rafael will have to be revamped quickly so SMART trains can pass through the hub en route to Larkspur as soon as 2018.

The big changes will come as Golden Gate Bridge district officials make plans to move the entire center in as soon as five years.

It was the district that gave Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit a right of way through the center, so the disruption is not a complete surprise.

Officials at the district, which runs buses in and out of the transit center, initially planned to study the center’s future and where it might be located as SMART came online.

But last December SMART officials announced the agency was in line to receive funding to extend the commuter rail service to Larkspur, which includes going through the transit center. With construction of commuter train service to Larkspur starting as soon as summer 2017, the transit center will have to be revamped to squeeze rail and bus service into the site.  See the Full Story in the Marin IJ HERE