Senator Wiener’s Statement on Need for Second Transbay Tube Before New Bridge for Cars

December 7, 2017

San Francisco –  Today, Senator Scott Wiener issued the following statement after Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Mark DeSaulnier sent a letter to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission requesting that funding from Regional Measure 3, which is scheduled to go before the voters next year, be used on a “Southern Crossing” bridge south of the Bay Bridge:

“We have limited resources for transportation improvements, and we need to prioritize moving people via public transit, not one car at a time across a toll bridge. Whatever the merits are of another bridge across the Bay, it is simply not as important as building a second transbay rail crossing. A second tube can mean more BART trains running, including 24 hour service, a connection between Caltrain and the Capitol Corridor, and high speed rail to Easy Bay.  That is how we are going to reduce gridlock, not by building another bridge that pours more cars onto our highways on both sides of the Bay. To create a more sustainable transportation future for the Bay Area, we must prioritize a public transit future, not continue living in a car-centric past.”


Regional Measure 3, passed by the State Legislature and signed by Governor Brown this year, authorizes the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to put forward a ballot measure to increase tolls on the seven Bay Area bridges that will fund highway and transit improvements in order to reduce congestion on the bridge approaches and surrounding corridors.