Paul Avenue station

Soon after Caltrans took over operation of the Peninsula Commute service, a study was published in 1982 recommending that Paul Avenue be closed.^[4] Service was reduced after the 1982 study.^{[5]: 27–28} A 1987 ridership survey showed that on a typical weekday, 37 northbound passengers disembarked at Paul, 1 northbound passenger embarked, and 43 southbound passengers disembarked.^[5]: 15 In the late 1990s, Caltrain staff recommended that the station be closed due to low ridership – it was located away from residential and commercial areas, and riders found it unsafe.^[6][7] It was to require $3.65 million to stabilize a crumbling embankment, and modernizing the station was to have cost significantly more. However, the Caltrain board voted in February 1999 to keep the station open due to pressure from the neighborhood and from mayor Willie Brown.^[7]

 

After the Caltrain Express project was completed in 2004, only four weekday trains stopped at Paul Avenue: one northbound and one southbound local in the early morning, and one northbound and one southbound local in the evening.^[8] Before its closure in 2005, service remained at four weekday local trains, and no service on weekends.^[9]

The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, the governing body of Caltrain, voted in April 2005 to suspend service to Paul Avenue effective August 1, 2005.^[10][11] Weekday service was also suspended at Broadway and Atherton in order to add twelve more Baby Bullet trains to help close a funding gap, because the limited-stop express trains had typically operated at capacity and generated higher revenues than locals since their introduction in 2004.^[10][11][12]

The abandoned station was soon covered with trash and graffiti. Caltrain cleaned up the larger debris in March 2009. That July, the platforms and shelter were removed, the graffiti painted over, and a fence installed to deter access.^[13][14]

 

When Caltrain was still being operated by Caltrans, a report was published in 1988 from a study to evaluate the feasibility of replacing Paul Avenue with a new station to the north at either Williams Avenue, Palou Avenue, or Evans Avenue. The report was prepared in conjunction with the effort to create a home port for USS Missouri (BB-63) in San Francisco at the Hunters Point Shipyard, and concluded that with the completion of the Downtown Rail Extension (now known as The Portal), daily ridership could increase to 2,400. However, without the downtown extension, ridership would be limited to less than 100. The preferred site was at Evans Avenue.^[5]

The Bayview Hunters Point Community Revitalization Concept Plan (March 2002) identified the Oakdale-Palou area as the community's preferred location for the Caltrain station.^[15] A 2005 feasibility study proposed a new station just north of Oakdale Avenue (37°44′17″N 122°23′41″W / 37.738°N 122.3948°W / 37.738; -122.3948) next to the City College of San Francisco Southeast Campus in Bayview, 1.0 mile (1.6 km) north of the former Paul Avenue station. The new station would have platforms passing over Quint, and bus stops for four lines would be located within walking distance of the new station.^[16]: 18 Just north of Oakdale, freight trains are routed east along the Quint Street Lead, which branches from the main line, to the Intermodal Freight Rail Cargo Transfer Facility near Piers 90–96.^[16]: 27 A follow-up study in 2014 predicted daily ridership of around 2,350.^[6][17] In the vicinity of the proposed station, the Caltrain line is grade-separated from Oakdale (which passes over the rail line) and Quint. Prior to 2016, the rail line was carried over Quint on a steel bridge originally constructed for the Bayshore Cutoff in the early 1900s. In preparation for a new Oakdale station, the bridge, which was structurally deficient, was removed on April 30 and replaced by a berm completed in July 2016, which severed Quint between Oakdale and Jerrold.^[18] A new road has been proposed on land belonging to Union Pacific west of the tracks, to reconnect Quint to Jerrold.^[19]

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paul Avenue station.

• Ehrlich, Peter (24 June 1994). "CALTRAIN--Train 45 arr Paul Avenue IB". flickr. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
• Browne, Arne (7 June 2008). "Caltrain passing abandoned Paul Avenue Station Stop". flickr. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
• SFCTA – Caltrain Oakdale Station Study