The station had its last long distance train on April 30, 1971, when the Southern Pacific yielded operation of the Coast Daylight to Amtrak and the Del Monte was discontinued.

However, the bus connections between San Francisco and Oakland (and later Emeryville) continued, and are still operated as part of the Amtrak Thruway banner.

With the rise of freeways and the loss of long-distance passenger rail service, Southern Pacific built the much smaller Fourth and King Street Station to serve the Peninsula Commute in 1975.

[12] The railroad intended the style to "link San Francisco more closely with the romance and sentiment of the settlement of California", and planned to include interior murals on that theme.

The initial announcement of the design included giving customers a choice of free and paying bathrooms, for the first time in a Western train station.

The waiting room had a marble floor, measured 64 by 110 feet (20 by 34 m), with a 45-foot (14 m) ceiling, and was lit on three sides by amber-glassed windows.