![]() The new Alameda-Contra Costa Transit district took over the Key's bus operations in 1960. "As the last train passed Interlocking Tower Number 2, the towerman made a last entry in his log 'The End of a Perfect Story.' " Demoro, who wrote two books about the Key System, wrote its epitaph in one of his books. The private company that owned the Key System wanted out, and so did the public. By 1957, only 5.2 million passengers rode the rails across the bridge. There was a costly strike in the summer and fall of 1953. National City Lines did not admire rail operations. ![]() Besides, the Key System was owned by National City Lines, which was in turn owned by Firestone, Phillips Petroleum, Standard Oil and General Motors. ![]() Commuting by car grew, the suburbs beyond the Berkeley hills flourished and the Key didn't. In 1941, the Key trains carried 11 million passengers over the bridge, and in 1945, when gasoline was rationed during World War II, Key trains carried 26.4 million Transbay rail passengers. "įor a brief time, the Key System shared the bridge railway with Southern Pacific and Sacramento Northern Electric trains. When the new bridge railway opened, the Key System tied up its orange ferryboats and promised "swift, new Key trains will cut many minutes for commuters and shoppers. "The Key System made it possible for the East Bay to become a bedroom community for San Francisco," said Fred Krock, a retired radio announcer who has studied the life and times of the Key. "The East Shore Empire," the company called it. The company built and sold houses in the Oakland hills and north Berkeley. became "The Key Route," and later the Key System. The company's publicists decided the rail routes looked like a key, and so the S.F.O. The company painted its ferries bright orange and went into competition with the mighty Southern Pacific. The company also had a real estate component, and even hotels, including the fabled Claremont, terminus of the E line. There were eventually five electric rail commuter lines fanning out from the Oakland side, stretching from Solano Avenue and the Alameda in North Berkeley to San Leandro. The company consolidated a number of East Bay streetcar lines, built a new ferry pier on the Oakland side of the bay, had two brand new ferryboats built, and started an integrated rail-ferry service to San Francisco. It was a sad end for the Key System, which began as the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose Railroad in 1903. has been one of constant and increasing failure." The Oakland Tribune, which once was friendly toward the Key System, called the trains "an unsatisfactory Transbay transit program." A San Francisco Chronicle editorial said of the trains: "Their history, under various managements. ![]() Increasing car traffic and declining passenger loads on the Key trains doomed rail on the bridge.įew political leaders had a good word to say about the trains. There was a third two-way lane in the middle for passing up slow trucks. The lower deck was restricted to trucks and buses - one lane each way. There were no barriers to separate the traffic. The upper deck had two-way motor traffic, separated only by a painted double line. The bridge railway, which began service in January 1939, 26 months after the Bay Bridge was opened to motor vehicles, took up two lanes and a steel barrier on the lower deck. After the tracks were ripped up, the bridge was converted into a freeway for cars, buses and trucks. However, the end of rail transit on the Bay Bridge was more than just an exercise in nostalgia. "It was a little on the rowdy side," said Bill Kluver, a lifelong admirer of railroads, who was there. They also set off flares and trackside warning devices and made such a horrible racket the Oakland cops turned out in force to see what was the matter. It was packed with more than 500 passengers, who managed to get into the control cabs and set off all the train bells and whistles. The last train did not go quietly into the night.
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