SDSU Transit Center

SDSU Transit Center is an underground San Diego Trolley station on the Green Line and a bus hub serving San Diego State University (SDSU). The station's entrances are located between College Avenue and Campanile Drive. It is the only underground station in the system and features side platforms. The bus plaza opened in February 2005, followed by the trolley platforms on July 10, 2005, when Green Line began service.

History

In 1989, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board (now the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System) began planning the 5.6-mile (9 km) Mission Valley East extension to link the existing Blue and Orange lines. The $506 million project was routed near the SDSU campus, and university officials viewed the line as an opportunity to connect the campus directly to downtown, its surrounding neighborhoods and the nearby San Diego Stadium (now Snapdragon Stadium) used by the school's football team.

Initial plans considered 11 or 12 possible alignments, most of which bypassed the SDSU campus or placed a station at its northern edge near Interstate 8. That location would have placed the station about 400 feet (120 m) below campus, connected by stairs or elevators. SDSU officials lobbied for a centrally located station within campus, arguing that a peripheral station located far below campus would discourage ridership. The Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) resisted tunneling because it added an estimated $40–50 million to costs, but were persuaded by campus leaders and a study from URS Corporation showing that most of the tunnel could be built using cut-and-cover techniques under existing roadways, and the new Austrian tunneling method could be used when the line passed under campus buildings.