San Francisco S Interurban To San Mateo

It's strange to think that an electric commuter rail line rivaling BART in efficiency, speed, and comfort ran over 100 years ago between San Francisco and San Mateo, but run it did. The 40 Line, or San Mateo Interurban, began in 1892 with an initial segment operating between Market and Steuart Streets out to the county limits on San Jose Avenue. Three years later, the line reached Baden in present-day South San Francisco, and by 1903 service was opened all the way to downtown San Mateo. During the line's heyday, there was talk of extending it down the peninsula from San Mateo to Palo Alto to connect with the Peninsular Railway to San Jose. The 1906 earthquake put this plan on hold. Following much the same route as today's Mission Street, El Camino Real, and Caltrain, the San Mateo Interurban carried over four million passengers a year along its main and spur lines until 1949, when the system was shut down amidst much fanfare.

It's strange to think that an electric commuter rail line rivaling BART in efficiency, speed, and comfort ran over 100 years ago between San Francisco and San Mateo, but run it did. The 40 Line, or San Mateo Interurban, began in 1892 with an initial segment operating between Market and Steuart Streets out to the county limits on San Jose Avenue. Three years later, the line reached Baden in present-day South San Francisco, and by 1903 service was opened all the way to downtown San Mateo. During the line's heyday, there was talk of extending it down the peninsula from San Mateo to Palo Alto to connect with the Peninsular Railway to San Jose. The 1906 earthquake put this plan on hold. Following much the same route as today's Mission Street, El Camino Real, and Caltrain, the San Mateo Interurban carried over four million passengers a year along its main and spur lines until 1949, when the system was shut down amidst much fanfare.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.

San Francisco's F-Line is the fun way to ride transit in one of America's greatest cities. Using multi-colored streetcars, built in the 1940s, 1920s and even earlier, it is a transforming experience that carries the rider back to a more genteel and carefree time, while providing an efficient and pleasant way to get from here to there in a modern era. Its creation has shown the world that public transportation can be exciting, fun, and a source of civic pride. The author, an active participant in the success of the F-Line, has written the book in an upbeat and breezy style, sprinkling anecdotes drawn from his own experiences and those of fellow workers and participants throughout the book. In this way, the book will appeal not only to those who are in, or follow, the transit industry, but also to the average reader, rider, and San Francisco Bay Area resident. Anyone who rides the F-Line will get a much fuller appreciation of this great city. This book has 290 pages with over 500 color and black-and-white photographs.