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History of East Bay Public Transportation
- History of East Bay Public Transportation
- AC Transit Moving People...Building Community
- Public Ownership Introduced
- Extensive Services
- Streamlining Services
- The First Street Car
Public transit in the East Bay dates back to 1869 - the
same year America's two coasts were joined by transcontinental
rail - with the establishment of a horse-drawn rail car to carry
passengers from Oakland's railway station to a burgeoning downtown.
Succeeding years witnessed the replacement of horse-drawn cars
by cable cars, then electric streetcars and trains and, finally,
buses.
Voters created the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) in
1956, and the District bought out the failing Key System. Thus in 1960,
the vital job of transporting people throughout the East Bay and across
the Bay Bridge was entrusted to a public agency.
Here are a few highlights in the history of East Bay public
transportation.
| 1886 | The East Bay's first cable car line supplants horse-drawn transit on San Pablo Avenue. |
| 1891 | The first electric streetcar links Oakland with Berkeley, ushering in an era of streetcar and intercity rail service. |
| 1893 | Francis Marion "Borax" Smith begins consolidating East Bay streetcar lines into the Key System. |
| 1903 | First "Key Route" electric train links Berkeley with a new pier jutting three miles into San Francisco Bay, inaugurating Smith's transbay train/ferry service. That ferry pier remains the hub of Key Route transbay service for over 36 years. |
| 1921 | The Key System's first buses go into operation in Oakland's Montclair and Mills College districts. |
| 1937 | The Key System begins running motor coaches on the new Bay Bridge. |
| 1960 | AC Transit takes over the Key System's operations, builds up the bus fleet with 250 new "transit liners," extends service into new neighborhoods, creates an intercity express bus network, and increases Bay Bridge bus service. |
| 1970 | The District introduces a 10 cent discounted fare for senior citizens while transbay service becomes speedier through new bus-only lanes at the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza. |
| 1972 | BART service begins, and AC Transit contracts to provide feeder buses linking the rail system with suburbs outside the District's service area. |
| 1974-78 | AC Transit extends services to outlying communities: Fremont and Newark in southern Alameda; local jurisdictions in central Contra Costa; Pittsburg, Antioch, Oakley and Brentwood in East Contra Costa; and the West Contra Costa communities of Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo and Crockett. |
| 1989 | AC Transit plays a vital role in the East Bay's response to the Loma Prieta Earthquake, which shatters freeways, closes the Bay Bridge and dramatically changes travel patterns. |
| 1992 | With lift-equipped coaches assigned to all routes, bus service becomes accessible to all potential riders. |
| 1997 | The District creates its own paratransit unit, which operates a fleet of 35 minibuses. |
| 1999 | AC Transit road tests a futuristic hybrid electric bus --- battery-powered with a clean-burning, propane auxiliary generator - heralding a future of pollution-free public transportation. |
AC Transit Moving People...Building Community
Transit is an innovative, modern bus system, owned
by the public of the East Bay. Its family tree
dates back to 1869…the year America’s two
coasts were joined by the transcontinental
railroad with the driving of the golden spike.
In the same year, 1869, the Suez Canal opened,
linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and the
Indian Ocean. That’s the year when AC
Transit’s predecessor began carrying passengers
from the Jack London Waterfront into burgeoning
Oakland in a horse-drawn rail car.
In ensuing decades, Oakland and the East Bay
blossomed at the heart of the San Francisco Bay
Area. The East Bay’s mass transportation system,
long considered to be one of the finest in the
nation, was a major contributor to the area’s
growth and prosperity.
By the 1890’s, the first electric street railway
connected Berkeley with Oakland and horsepower
soon gave way to electrification. In 1903, Francis
M. “Borax” Smith (who make his millions in
borax discoveries) acquired the streetcars and
built a number of extensions…including a
three-mile pier jutting into San Francisco Bay.
And that October, trains began carrying commuters
to the landing for a quick 30-minute boat ride to
the ferry Building in San Francisco.
Smith added more branches to his mainline service,
creating the network which became known as the
“Key Route” and which opened up many now
familiar neighborhoods like Montclair. Although
Smith eventually overextended himself, everything
that rolled in transit in the East Bay became know
as the Key System. For half a century, a spreading
network of rail and bus routes helped foster the
growth of today’s East Bay.
By 1948, the last of yesteryear’s streetcars gave way to motorized
buses. By then, rising costs and declining patronage impacted
Key System’s service levels and public image. East Bay voters
soon turned to a different solution: operating a mass transit
system they could own.
Public Ownership Introduced
California’s State Legislature passed an enabling act in 1955
providing for the creation of the state’s first
Special Transit Service District in the western
portions of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. One
year later, the electorate voted to establish the
Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District – and
publicly- owned AC Transit was born.
AC Transit actually rolled into operation October
1, 1960, a year after voters approved a $16.5
million bond issue to buy out Key System. The
publicly - owned District introduced an aggressive
program of route additions and extensions as well
as 250 then-new “transit liners” –the first
of many innovations.
The system is governed by a seven-member Board of
Directors elected by East Bay voters to four year
terms. Five of the seven Directors represent
geographic wards while two are elected at-large.
This Board has full power to conduct all business
of the District including: the right to acquire,
construct, own, operate, and control transit
facilities; to fix rates; and to establish routes
and levels of service.
The District’s Board may accept assistance from
the federal and state governments, and it may
incur indebtedness and exercise the right of
imminent domain. The Board is empowered to impose
property taxes within the service area to support
transit operations – a power severely limited
with the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, the
“Jarvis-Gann Property Tax Initiative.”
For administrative purposes, AC Transit has two distinct segments:
Special Transit Service District No. 1 includes Alameda, Albany,
Berkeley, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Hayward, Oakland, Piedmont,
Richmond, San Leandro, and San Pablo…plus unincorporated areas
of Ashland, Castro Valley, El Sobrante, Kensington and San Lorenzo.
Special Transit Service District No. 2, which joined AC Transit
in 1974, includes Fremont and Newark in Southern Alameda County.
Extensive Services
Today, AC Transit operates an extensive network of local,
express and transbay routes blanketing the 13 cities (and adjacent unincorporated areas) in
Alameda and Contra Costa Counties along the east shores of San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. The
total area served by AC Transit is approximately 390 square miles, with a population of about 1.4
million. AC Transit offers a broad range of transportation services for the East Bay
including:
Local and Intercity Express routes--– More than 100 local bus lines operating the highways and
byways, putting service and at least one of the system’s nearly 8,000 bus stops within
one-quarter mile of almost all residential households in the area.
Transbay----Four basic routes, expanding to more
than 33 during commute hours to provide direct
connections between many East Bay neighborhoods
and the Transbay Transit Terminal in downtown San
Francisco. Additional regional connections proved
bus service (via the Dumbarton and San
Mateo/Hayward Bridges) direct to high-tech
employment areas on the San Francisco Peninsula,
and (from Fremont and Milpitas) to Santa Clara
County.
Accessible Transit----To provide a high level of
mobility for the District’s seniors and people
with disabilities, all buses are equipped with
accessibility features like passenger lifts. Some
24,000 passengers lift trips were registered
during the fiscal year 1994-95.
Paratransit----In addition to operating the
fixed-route network transporting some 230,000
daily riders, AC Transit operates a small fleet of
minibuses that provides a significant portion of
the East Bay’s paratransit service----the
transportation tailored for persons with
disabilities who are unable to use regular AC
Transit buses or BART trains. Further, the
District is devoting much attention and energy to
meeting the mandates of the Americans With
Disabilities Act by administering the parallel
paratransit service.
Special Services---- AC Transit operates special
express bus service to UC Berkley’s Memorial
Stadium, the Oakland Coliseum complex and to other
sports and entertainment events as approved by the
Board of Directors.
Since its 1960 start-up, AC Transit has grown significantly…from
an operation that once totaled 19 million annual revenue service
miles, AC has grown to operate more than 25 million last year.
The number of passengers now carried annually is more than 62
million, compare to 48 million 30 years ago.
Streamlining Service
In
the early 1990’s, AC Transit shifted gears to
implement a system-wide Comprehensive Service Plan
(CSP) –an ambitious project to streamline and
modernize bus service throughout the East Bay, and
to improve coordination with AC’s own service
network as well as with connecting transit
systems.
The challenge was to design a network that goes
where most people want to go today, and to make
transferring between routes simple and easy to
understand. To meet those goals, the District was
aided by an enthusiastic public which contributed
much time and energy participation in hearings and
workshops, meeting with Directors and planning
staff to hammer out details of the CSP
improvements.
After the initial phase was introduced in Western
Contra Costa County, later stages brought
extensive route and schedule improvements to much
of the central East Bay. In the urban core –
Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda – the decades-old
pattern of routes radiating from “downtown”
was replaced by a new network of interlacing
east-west and north-south routes to greatly
facilitate travel.
Today, AC Transit’s 2,000 workers operate a
fleet of 700 buses to serve some 230,000 weekday
passengers. More than 90% of these riders use
local East Bay bus service, while fewer than one
in ten travel transbay to and from San Francisco.
Riders report that, most often, they use buses to
commute between home and the work place. Within
the metropolitan East Bay, buses handle 78% of all
transit commute trips.
Thus as there year 2,000 approaches, AC Transit
continues its century-old tradition of working to
meet the East Bay’s critical transportation
needs. Oakland and its surrounding communities now
boast a relatively healthy economy, a wealth of
educational, commercial, industrial, residential
and recreational resources-and an efficient mass
transportation network tying it all together.
Having successfully survived the funding challenges of the early
1990’s, AC Transit continues to fine-tune the CSP route network
improvements already in place and to introduce new streamlined
service patterns in the Hayward and Fremont/Newark areas of
Southern Alameda County. Thus, AC Transit is able to maintain
its effective network of commute-hour bus service that blankets
the East Bay.
The First East Oakland Street Car
In the 1920's, the Key Note newsletter for Key System employees ran a series of short articles about the history of East Bay transportation and the Key System. What follows is an article reprinted from the June 1929 Key Note, retaining the original grammar and punctuation. The article describes the history of some early street car lines in Oakland— the "Tubbs Line, " East Oakland's first street car service, and the Market Street Railroad.
From 1888, Oakland Cable Railway Co. Car #6 at San Pablo Avenue
and Park Street. Photograph courtesy of Mike Mills.
In 1873 the Oakland, Brooklyn and Fruitvale Railroad came into operating existence. The road was commonly known as the "Tubbs Line"; so named because of the fact that A. Tubbs was one of the large backers and enthusiasts in the establishing of the street car line. In 1873 the Tubbs Hotel at Fifth Avenue and East Twelfth Street was one of the fine hotels of the community. Mr. Tubbs was interested in having adequate transportation for his guests and patrons.
The "Tubbs Line" was built and operated from 7th and Broadway, north to 12th Street and thence east to 13th Avenue. It made a direction connection with the "local" at 7th and Broadway. The fare was 10 cents or 3 tickets for 25 cents.
Although but a short line, it was the only street car line to East Oakland for a number of years. It was not until 1892-twenty years later-when the electric lines were built, that East Oakland had any other street car service.
About 1880 when Senator Fair purchased the San Pablo and Telegraph Avenue lines, he also acquired the "Tubbs Line" and operated it as part of his street railway "system."
Another early street car line was the Market Street Railroad. About 1870 this horse car line was built and operated from First and Market Streets north to 24th Street, thence west to Adeline Street. A year later the line was extended north on Adeline Street and then followed the route of the present Hollis Street line to 34th Street. A short auxiliary line was also built from 7th and Adeline Streets which operated north to connect with the line at 24th Street.
The Market Street Railroad connected with the "Overland" trains at First and Market Streets. When the trains no longer stopped at Market Street, the horse car line was abandoned south of 7th Street. The entire line was abandoned in 1890 when Mr. Blair built the Piedmont cable road.