San Francisco station
railway station in San Francisco
San Francisco station (also known as the Caltrain Depot and 4th and King station) is a train station in the SoMa district of San Francisco, California. It is the northern terminus of the Caltrain commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley. It is also served by Muni Metro; it is the eastern terminus of the N Judah and an intermediate stop on the T Third Street. The station is additionally the projected terminus for the first phase of the California High-Speed Rail project and a station once Phase 2 is completed.
History
The station is in the Mission Bay/China Basin area, bordered on the north by Townsend Street, east by 4th Street, and south by King Street. All 13 tracks approaching from the west presently terminate here, just short of 4th Street. The facility opened on June 21, 1975, replacing a station built in 1914 at 3rd and Townsend, one block away to the east.
The station is one block from Oracle Park, the home ballpark of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. Caltrain runs extra trains on game days to shuttle fans to and from the ballpark.
The Muni light-rail extension to the station was opened in 1998.
The public source identifies “San Francisco station” as railway station in San Francisco. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Francisco, station and railway.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “San Francisco station”, the useful work is to connect “railway station in San Francisco” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7413912. Authority coordinates are 37.776, -122.394. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 1914 and 1998.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “San Francisco station”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow San Francisco station primary sources, San Francisco station archive and Francisco research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “San Francisco station”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “San Francisco station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.