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Balboa Park station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station and Muni Metro complex located south of Balboa Park in southern San Francisco, California. It is an intermodal hub served by four BART routes, three Muni Metro lines, and a number of Muni bus routes. The station complex also includes two rail yards, Cameron Beach Yard and Green Light Rail Center, where Muni maintains Muni Metro trains and heritage streetcars. BART uses a below-grade island platform on the west side of the complex; Muni Metro routes use several smaller side platforms located on surface-level rail loops around the yards. The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad opened in 1863, with Elkton station located near the modern site. Passenger service on the line (later the Southern Pacific Railroad Ocean View Branch) ran until about 1922. Electric streetcar service at Balboa Park began in 1892 with the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway, which built a still-standing office building designed by Reid & Reid there in 1901. The United Railroads conglomerate built its Elkton shops on an adjacent parcel in 1907. In the 1960s, BART decided to use the Ocean View Branch right-of-way for part of a rapid transit system. The San Francisco portion of BART, including Balboa Park station, opened on November 5, 1973. Both streetcar facilities were replaced by modern yards in the 1970s and 1980s. Muni Metro service to the Balboa Park complex began with the K Ingleside line in 1979, followed by the M Ocean View line in 1980 and the J Church line in 1991. In the early 2000s, BART and Muni began planning renovations to improve the accessibility of the station and its connections to the surrounding neighborhoods. A new BART entrance was completed in 2011, followed by new Muni platforms in 2015 and 2017 and an additional footbridge in 2018. Additional improvements like more elevators and modernized headhouses are proposed. The 1901-built office building and an adjacent powerhouse, both abandoned since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, are planned to be renovated as a community center.
