I'll (mostly) spare you my criticism of this station's stupid name (Powell is closer to Market…read moreStreet than this station; why not just call it Union Square?) and its relative uselessness as a station (the city spent almost $2 billion to extend Muni train service less than two miles).
Right. Let's pretend we don't know anything about spending money wisely, traffic patterns, or public transit in San Francisco. Got it? Good.
It's a gorgeous station. I really like the LED light squares, and when you're standing on the platform and especially going up on one of the escalators, the ceiling just looks so cool. The platform itself, the platform elevator, and the stairs and escalators leading to and from the platform all warrant five stars. Well done, Muni!
Now, this station was built to solve a very particular problem. They needed to connect the T-Third line (north-south) with all the other Muni Metro lines (east-west). It would have been extremely difficult to do so at Powell Station, so they built this station just north of Powell and way deeper underground (because they needed to avoid not only the Muni Metro tunnels but also the BART tunnels, which are below the Market Street Muni Metro tunnels). They connected this station physically to Powell so that you don't need to go all the way to the street level to go between the two stations, but it's such a long walk or roll from even the closest of the Powell exits to this one that it doesn't feel like a connection. Accessibility isn't only about flat ground, elevators, and gates wide enough for wheelchair access; it's also about people who can walk but only for short distances. As such, this station is probably fine for wheelchair users, but as a connection to Powell Station for people with truly limited mobility, it doesn't work.
When you walk here from Powell Station, you obviously know that you're going down, because the stairs and escalators are long. But if you really want to get a sense of how deep underground you are, do yourself a favor and exit from the Union Square end. That is, when you're standing on the platform, go up the stairs or escalators north (in the same direction as Chinatown). When you get there, you'll see that you need to take even more stairs or a longer, steeper escalator up to the street level, and there's even a separate elevator from the platform elevator. The other cool thing about exiting this way is that the on-street exit/entrance to Geary Street is very low key--it's almost hidden.
When it rains, you can see the rainwater running in a gutter near the train tracks. The station isn't leaking. They just chose to make the gutter open down here, probably because totally enclosing it would make it that much more difficult to access for cleaning, repairs, etc.
I'm always impressed by the number of riders who have boarded at Chinatown Station who choose to disembark here. Yes, it's a transit connection to the rest of the Muni Metro system and to BART, so it shouldn't really be surprising, but it does warm my heart. I'm a Muni fan through and through, even though--and perhaps because--I criticize their stupid, shortsighted decisions so vociferously.