The Key System was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when it was sold to a newly formed public agency, AC Transit. The Key System consisted of local streetcar and bus lines in the East Bay, and commuter rail and bus lines connecting the East Bay to San Francisco by a ferry pier on San Francisco Bay, later via the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. At its height during the 1940s, the Key System had over 66 miles (106 km) of track. The local streetcars were discontinued in 1948 and the commuter trains to San Francisco were discontinued in 1958. The Key System's territory is today served by BART and AC Transit bus service.
The Piedmont Avenue neighborhood is a residential and commercial district in the North Oakland region of Oakland, California. It is named for Piedmont Avenue, a commercial street known for dining and retail. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by Temescal and Broadway on the west, Oakland Avenue and the City of Piedmont on the east, the Mountain View Cemetery on the north, and the MacArthur Freeway section of Interstate 580 on the south.
Daly City station is an elevated Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in Daly City, California, just south of the city limits of San Francisco. It is adjacent to Interstate 280 and California Route 1, which it serves as a park-and-ride station. The station is served by the Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue lines; it is the western terminus of the Green and Blue lines.
12th Street/Oakland City Center station is an underground Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station located under Broadway between 12th Street and 14th Street in Downtown Oakland, adjacent to the Oakland City Center. The station has three underground levels, with tracks on the second and third levels. It is served by the Red Line, Orange Line, and Yellow Line, as well as by AC Transit buses on the surface.
19th Street Oakland station is an underground Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station located under Broadway between 17th Street and 20th Street in the Uptown District of Oakland, California. It is a timed transfer point between northbound trains to Richmond and to Antioch. The station has three underground levels, with tracks on the second and third levels. It is served by the Red Line, Orange Line, and Yellow Line, as well as by AC Transit buses on the surface at the Uptown Transit Center.
Richmond station is an Amtrak intercity rail and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station located in downtown Richmond, California. Richmond is the north terminus of BART service on the Orange Line and Red Line; it is a stop for Amtrak's Capitol Corridor, San Joaquins, and California Zephyr routes. The accessible station has one island platform for the two BART tracks, with a second island platform serving two of the three tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad Martinez Subdivision for Amtrak trains. It is one of two transfer points between BART and Amtrak, along with Oakland Coliseum station.
Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany, California is a two-mile (3.2 km) long east-west street. Solano Avenue is one of the larger shopping districts in the Berkeley area. Businesses along Solano Avenue cover a wide range, including grocery stores, coffee shops, drugstores, bookstores, antique dealers, apparel outlets, ethnic restaurants and a movie theater.
The Oakland Terminal Railway was a terminal railroad in West Oakland, California. The OTR was jointly acquired in 1943 by the Western Pacific Railroad and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to take over the Key System's freight railroad known as the Oakland Terminal Railroad. Today, the OTR is now the West Oakland Pacific Railroad that operates on 10 miles (16 km) of track. OTR was jointly owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway. The railroad operated in the industrial area around the Oakland Army Base.
The Shipyard Railway was an electric commuter rail/interurban line that served workers at the Richmond Shipyards in Richmond, California, United States, during World War II. It was funded by the United States Maritime Commission and was built and operated by the Key System, which already operated similar lines in the East Bay. The line ran from a pair of stations on the Emeryville/Oakland border – where transfer could be made to other Key System lines – northwest through Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany, and Richmond to the shipyards. It operated partially on city streets and partially on a dedicated right-of-way paralleling the Southern Pacific Railroad mainline.
The East Bay Electric Lines were a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad that operated electric interurban-type trains in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Beginning in 1862, the SP and its predecessors operated local steam-drawn ferry-train passenger service in the East Bay on an expanding system of lines, but in 1902 the Key System started a competing system of electric lines and ferries. The SP then drew up plans to expand and electrify its system of lines and this new service began in 1911. The trains served the cities of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, Oakland, Alameda, and San Leandro transporting commuters to and from the large Oakland Pier and SP Alameda Pier. A fleet of ferry boats ran between these piers and the docks of the Ferry Building on the San Francisco Embarcadero.
The Sacramento Northern Railway was a 183-mile (295 km) electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the state capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oakland, Sacramento, Yuba City, Chico, and Woodland. This involved multiple car trains making sharp turns at street corners and obeying traffic signals. Once in open country, SN's passenger trains ran at fairly fast speeds. With its shorter route and lower fares, the SN provided strong competition to the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific Railroad for passenger business and freight business between those two cities. North of Sacramento, both passenger and freight business was less due to the small town agricultural nature of the region and due to competition from the paralleling Southern Pacific Railroad.
The Berkeley Branch Railroad was a 3.84-mile (6.18 km) long branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) from a junction in what later became Emeryville called "Shellmound" to what soon became downtown Berkeley, adjacent to the new University of California campus.
The station complex of Amtrak's Oakland Coliseum station and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)'s Coliseum station is located in the East Oakland area of Oakland, California, United States. The two stations, located about 600 feet (180 m) apart, are connected to each other and to the Oakland Coliseum/Oakland Arena sports complex with an accessible pedestrian bridge. The BART station is served by the Orange, Green, and Blue lines; the Amtrak station is served by the Capitol Corridor service.
Madison Street is a major thoroughfare of Seattle, Washington. The street originates at Alaskan Way on the Seattle waterfront, and heads northeast through Downtown Seattle, First Hill, Capitol Hill, Madison Valley, Washington Park, and Madison Park, ending just east of 43rd Avenue East on Lake Washington. From Broadway to Lake Washington, the street is known as East Madison Street, which accounts for most of its length. It is the only Seattle street that runs uninterrupted from the salt water of Puget Sound in the west to the fresh water of Lake Washington in the east.
The Northbrae Tunnel, also referred to as the Solano Avenue Tunnel, was built as a commuter electric railroad tunnel in the northern part of Berkeley, California, and was later converted to street use.
The F is a bus service operated by AC Transit in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the operator's many transbay routes, which are intended to provide riders a long-distance service across the San Francisco Bay between the East Bay and San Francisco. The service is descendant of the foundational Key System streetcar and ferry line that operated prior to the formation of AC Transit.
The E is a bus service operated by AC Transit in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the operator's many transbay routes, which are intended to provide riders a long-distance service across the San Francisco Bay between the East Bay and San Francisco. The service is descendant of a Key System streetcar and ferry line that operated prior to the formation of AC Transit. The line is noted for its role in the development of the Claremont Hotel.
The C was a bus service operated by AC Transit in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the operator's many transbay routes, which are intended to provide riders a long-distance service across the San Francisco Bay between the East Bay and San Francisco. The service was descendant of a Key System streetcar and ferry line that operated prior to the formation of AC Transit. The line was suspended in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The B was a bus service operated by AC Transit in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the operator's many transbay routes, which are intended to provide riders a long-distance service across the San Francisco Bay between the East Bay and San Francisco. The service was descendant of a Key System streetcar and ferry line that operated prior to the formation of AC Transit. The line was suspended in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Key System Mole was an interurban train and ferry pier on the San Francisco Bay. It served as an interchange point in the East Bay for Key System passengers traveling to and from San Francisco. It opened to passenger service in 1903 and was upgraded several times until 1933 when it was partially destroyed by a fire. Passenger service ended in 1939, and segments of the structure were partially reused in construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
