Beast Blog: Are you the Gatekeeper? I am the Key Route Master.

March 04, 2003

Are you the Gatekeeper? I am the Key Route Master.

Click map to enlarge.

This map, drawn in 1911, depicts the old Key System routes, a commuter train system for the East Bay named for the shape of the routes (said to resemble a skeleton key). The Bay Bridge originally had special lanes for Key System crossings, but the Rise of the Automobile meant the death of the commuter train, and by 1948 the last streetcars ran, and by 1958 the trans-bay trains stopped.

Vestiges of the Key System remain. Most obvious is Key Route Blvd in Albany. The oddly situated Shattuck Square in Berkeley, where Shattuck splits before it meets University Ave heading north, used to be a train station. At the corner of Piedmont and 41st in Oakland there is a plaque as you enter the parking lot, marking the terminal of a Key line. It states you could reach downtown San Francisco from that spot in 30 minutes.

For more facts, stories, and pictures of the Key System:

Susan Cerny's "Berkeley's Growth was Dependent on Public Transportation". (Part of her "Berkeley Observed" collection of essays.)

An amazing collection of photos of the Key System in action.

And perhaps my favorite, an old film of a ride on a Berkeley Street car (down Oxford, up Hearst). Make sure to read the summary at the bottom of the page.

Posted by peterme at March 4, 2003 07:16 AM | TrackBack

Comments

On March 16, 1928 My great grandfather Charles Sahrbacher was hit by a Key Route train in Berkeley and killed. He was 84 years old at the time.

Posted by: Marilyn Sandberg at June 29, 2003 01:32 PM

Thanks for posting your Key Route information. I'd like to suggest a few clarifications:
--the map you display also includes Southern Pacific's electric transbay routes (in red). The two companies competed for many years.
--as an aside, the map shows only the transbay train routes. There were also dozens of local streetcar routes operated by the Key System!
--there are a lot of Key Route remnants around, but Key Route Blvd. is not really one of them. The Key System never did run on that street. It had long range plans to extend in that direction (its G-line terminus was at Gilman St.) but never followed through.
--it was the shape of the original Ferry pier, with its ferry slips that looked like notches on a key, that inspired the 'Key Route' name. This was a popular name for the 'San Francisco, Oakland & San Jose railway', the company's official name. Eventually, they changed the name to match what people were calling it. The name 'Key System' came around later to better describe a combined system of trains, streetcars and motor coaches.
--The 'special lanes' on the bay bridge weren't really lanes at all. There was a heavy barrier on the lower deck, sectioning off two tracks that ran along the southern side of the lower deck. These tracks curved off onto looping overhead viaducts that carried them into the transbay terminal. The transbay terminal was called 'East Bay terminal' at that time and was built for 3 railroads to share. The last bay bridge train ran on the morning of April 20, 1958.