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SAN FRANCISCO — Kabah Conda’s eyes went wide when his bus first pulled into the new Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco two weeks ago.

“I was like, ‘Wowww,'” he said Tuesday, his eyes drifting to the vaulted ceiling in the Grand Hall. The Emeryville resident hadn’t paid any attention to the fliers handed out informing him of the move before the transition from the temporary terminal at Beale and Howard streets.

So, although he knew the new facility was opening at some point, he wasn’t expecting to be standing under a 125-foot ceiling that day. The effect was breathtaking.

“It’s just a massive building,” he said. “It’s almost like a theme park, it’s so big.”

It’s been just two weeks since the $2.3 billion bus depot at Mission and Fremont streets opened, and riders are embracing the sprawling complex that stretches more than five city blocks, eagerly anticipating when it will be fully operational, complete with train service and retail. But already, the transit center and its rooftop gardens are becoming a community magnet.

A half-dozen transit agencies are using the terminal now, with another half dozen expected to be added in coming years, including Caltrain and high-speed rail service, with an underground tunnel connecting passengers to BART. The train service is not expected to start until 2028, at the earliest, but when it does, the number of passengers streaming through might justify its size.

As it is now, it’s a little overwhelming, Conda said — at least it was at first. It was a sentiment echoed by several who found themselves trying to navigate the dozens of bus bays in the transit center’s first few days. Gina Hwang, of Emeryville, said it took her almost a week before she started to figure out which escalators to take to get closest to her exit and which bays correspond to which bus lines.

Unlike the temporary terminal, where bays were identified only by the bus line, the new terminal has numbered bays, where passengers get on or off the bus, that provide real-time information about which buses will be pulling up next and when the bus will arrive.

“Before, (the signs) used to be super tiny,” said Oakland resident Caryn Arredondo. “So, now I really like how they tell me which bus is coming next, and how long it will be.”

People consistently raved about the 5.4-acre rooftop park, which on Tuesday was playing host to around a dozen parents pushing strollers, a “Toddler Tuesday” activity time, a fitness boot camp, employees from neighboring offices drinking coffee, construction workers enjoying a break, and young adults playing Foosball.

Amelia Clark, a Berkeley resident who commutes daily to and from the transit center, has now made it a habit to head up one floor from the bus deck and loop the park before making her way to work.

“I love the greenery and that people are up there using it,” she said. “It just has a good vibe.”

Opinions were mixed, however, on whether the bus terminal’s exclusive ramp leading to and from the Bay Bridge is shaving any time off the commute. Oakland resident David Kaplan swears it saves 15 minutes or more, especially in the evenings, when traffic is backing up on the surface streets leading to the Bay Bridge. Conda estimated seven to 10 minutes faster. Hwang gave it five. Arredondo thinks it’s a wash.

Oakland resident Michael Abner swears the new route actually takes more time because the buses slow down when they’re approaching or leaving the terminal. That’s because the buses need to stop to wait for oncoming traffic at a crossover spot, where the buses switch from the right-hand lane to the left-hand lane before making the loop around the terminal to drop off passengers, said Robert Lyles, a spokesman for AC Transit.

The crossover is necessary because it allows people to board the buses, which all have doors on the right side, in the center of the bus deck, as opposed to the outer edge, he said. As a result, the buses have to slow down to avoid collisions.

“And, that’s annoying,” Abner said.

Josh Van Lente agreed. He thought it’d be a shorter trip, but traffic backed up on the Bay Bridge makes it difficult for buses to reach their exit.

“As the bus is getting off the bridge, there is a dedicated lane, but it gets blocked,” Van Lente said. “So, that’s a ‘miss,’ in my opinion.”

Riders also griped about the lack of train service, which is still a decade or more away, and the promised retail that’s also roughly a year from opening. On Tuesday, construction workers were still busy installing light fixtures and other features in the transit center’s public plaza at Fremont and Mission streets, as well as building out the retail portion of the building.

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“I was impressed we could achieve something like this,” he said. “Usually, it seems like there is a nice pretty drawing on paper, but it never happens.”

“This,” he said, “was impressive.”