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.