Will Spargur's "History of the Key System" presentation drew a near-record crowd at the November AC Transit Transbay Taskforce meeting. All enjoyed his presentation on the rise and decline of AC Transit's predecessor

1. 1
The Rise and Fall of Street Cars in the US from the perspective of
the Key System
By Will Spargur
Presented at AC Transit Transbay Taskforce Meeting
November 10, 2009
Summary
The Key System that served the East Bay cities with a variety of electric street cars for nearly
60 years provides an example of the processes that played out across the nation to nearly all
street car lines in big and medium size cities.
On April 20, 1958 a ceremonial train made the last passenger rail crossing on the bay bridge.
It was just another grim milestone in the decline of street cars in the United States marking the
end of an era that began shortly after the gold rush with horse drawn street cars on flat iron
rails and ended with a tidal wave of Americans fleeing to the suburbs in their new cars at the
end of World War II. In the 1920s and 30s any American city of 100,000 or more boasted an
electric street car system moving people to work, school and play. Nearly all were privately
owned.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

2. 2
The Key System that served East Bay cities from Richmond to San Leandro grew out of small
companies running horse drawn cars on iron rails in the 1860s supplemented by steam and
cable cars in the 1870s-80s and finally electric street cars in the 1890s.
These street car lines ran uncoordinated, overlapping routes until Francis Marion Smith, also
known as Borax Smith.
Smith made his fortune mining borax in the deserts
of Nevada and California and later developing and
expanding commercial uses for processed Borax
such as in laundry soap, glue, pesticides and
glazes for stoves and cookware. He eventually
settled in Oakland around 1880 and in 1893 he
began buying up small transit operators around the
east bay to consolidate them into what would
become know as the Key System.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

3. 3
In 1903 service was expanded to San Francisco when
Smith built the Key Pier to provide connecting Ferry Service
to San Francisco. Key System got its name from the Pier
which looked like an old fashion key from above. The pier
stretched nearly 3 miles into the bay about half way to San
Francisco almost touching Goat Island. It initially had only 3
tracks but was expanded over time to 9 as ridership
exploded.
Ferries finished off the final three miles to the ferry building in San Francisco from which
commuters could catch a street car to destinations in SF.
A fire destroyed the pier in 1933 and it was rebuilt a little shorter to make room for the new
bridge being built.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

4. 4
The first serious competition to the street cars and the key system occurred with the
development of the Model-T. Henry Ford's new assembly line techniques allowed him to mass
produce automobiles that were affordable to the average wage earning American instead of
toy of the rich.
Ridership on the Key System peak at 18 million in 1924 then
began a steady decline. By 1930 they had lost 3 million riders
as people abandoned the street cars to automobiles.
The Bay Bridge opened to automobile and truck traffic in
1936. It would take another 2 years before the bridge was
ready for trains. During this time Key users would have to
rely on the Ferry Pier for the leisurely (and long) transbay
commute.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

5. 5
From 1937 to 1938 the Key System built 88 special cars that would be operated on the Bridge.
The Bridge Units were based on the old WWI era
trains that ran the route from Oakland to
Richmond on San Pablo Ave.
They were big - 110 feet long and could seat 135 passengers about the size of 2 BART cars.
And like BART the trains could be joined together to form longer trains carrying over 1,000
passengers in a single go.
Although they had a sleek modern appearance for the time they were underpowered - made
on the cheap from scavenged parts of older
trolleys. This frugalness was necessitated
because declining ridership was cutting deeply
into profits.
The Key System couldn’t even afford to pay its
share for the tracks on the Bay Bridge and
deeded 30 of its trains to the State instead.
The state in turn leased these units back to
the Key.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

6. 6
The Passenger train service started on the Bay Bridge in January of 1939.
One year after opening the bridge to
trains the Toll Bridge Authority dropped
the toll from 40¢ to 25¢. The Southern
Pacific and Sacramento Northern- who
were also running commuter trains on
the bridge – went belly up almost
immediately. And Key ridership
dropped. The Key faced harsh
completion for transbay commuters. The
corner cutting and recycling of older
parts imposed severe service limitations.
A fully loaded train would crawl at 20-25
mph up the incline up to Yerba Buena
island as buses and trucks zoom past at
50mph. Taking the train began to seem
like more a leisure activity than a mode of transport. Although the trains had big picturesque
windows that provided great views they did not open and there was no air-conditioning.
Imagine riding on a fully loaded train on a hot day. And remember that a suit was standard
attire.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

7. 7
WWII reversed this decline almost overnight as gas and tire rationing moved people out of
their cars and on to mass transit. Factories that
made cars now made planes and tanks.
In 1940, one year before America entered the war
ridership was 10 million but by 1945 it more than
tripled to 35 million.
The war years were boom times for the Key Rail
but with factories committed to the war effort they
were unable to modernize their trains.
Once the war ended the steady decline resumed.
With government sponsored low interest mortgages, returning
GIs flocked to suburbs not easily served by transit.
Meanwhile the Key trains, worn-out by heavy use during the war
and lack of capital investment limped along frantically trying to
develop a profitable business model. In 1946 National City Lines
saw an easy target and moved in for the kill.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

8. 8
National City Lines backed with financing from GM,
Mack, Firestone, Standard Oil, Phillips 66 were
buying up transit systems throughout the United
States from Baltimore and St. Louis to Los Angles.
They moved quickly to replace electric rails with
rubber tires and gasoline engines. Although the
key had already been replacing its minor routes
with motor buses - National City Lines accelerated
the pace with the goal of completely replacing all
the rail lines – including the bridge routes with
buses.
This was advertised in many cities as a modernization program.
Few drivers mourned the passing of street cars because this
meant more space on the road as rails were ripped up. By 1948
National City Lines had successfully replaced all local lines with
buses. Only the Bay Bridge Interurbans remained.
By the 1950s National City Lines focused on
removing the last rails of the Key System – the
Bay Bridge Units and they found a willing
accomplice with the Bridge Toll Authority.
Traffic was rapidly increasing on the bridge
which was reaching its limited and people
were looking for ways to increase capacity.
The rails were an easy target.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

9. 9
In 1954 19,000 people were using key trains to
cross the bay while 152,000 were driving.
Although with modern trains the tracks were
capable of carrying far more people (BART carries
150,000 people a day in transbay tube). Studies
at the time indicated that faster trains could attract
riders back to the Key Bridge Trains but National
City Lines instead spent millions ripping out the
local street car tracks.
The antiquated trains couldn’t attract commuters. National City Lines wanted to stop operating
the bridge trains and the Toll Bridge Authority wanted that space which brings us back to April
20, 1958 as the last Key Train pulled into the Transbay Terminal.
Even with the aggressive cost cutting the buses suffered the same declining ridership and
within 2 years Alameda Contra Costa Transit was formed to buy out the failing Key System.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)

10. 10
Although the Key System rail disappeared in 1958 the idea of a rapid rail system didn’t.
In 1947 a Joint Army-Navy Board recommended an
underwater transit tube. Even with the tracks gone
transbay commutes where increasing and bridge just
didn’t have the capacity to allow everyone to drive.
The year before the last train on the Bridge the Bay Rapid
Transit District was formed but it wouldn’t be until 1974 that
a train crossed the bay again. This time underwater.
Key System History Presentation
November 10, 2009
Will Spargur (cspargur87@gmail.com)