East Bay Electric Lines (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The East Bay Electric Lines were a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad which operated a system of electric interurban-type trains in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Beginning in 1862, the SP and its predecessors had 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 opening 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 the Alameda Pier of the Southern Pacific. A fleet of ferry boats ran between these piers and the docks of the Ferry Building on the San Francisco Embarcadero. The East Bay Electric Lines became the Interurban Electric Railway in December, 1938 in anticipation of the completion the following month of the tracks on the lower deck of the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge to the San Francisco Transbay Terminal. Southern Pacific ended its IER transbay commuter train service in July, 1941.