History of Trolleys and Trains vs. Buses and Uber in the Bay Area

Amazingly once upon a time the San Francisco Bay Area had a good commuter rail transit system. Route mileage of trolleys and trains nationwide peaked in 1916 at 254,000 miles. It had fallen to 140,000 miles by 2009. Still electric streetcars or trolleys were popular in urban centers including San Francisco and the bay area as a means of transportation until the 1950’s.

However not unlike the more recent banking and loan scandals, in the 1940’s companies like General Motors, Standard Oil, Mack Truck, National City Bus Line, Philips Petroleum and others colluded and were all found guilty of violating the Sherman AntiTrust Act. Their crime was to systematically dismantle rail service all around the country and replace the rails with buses. For this they were fined $5000 each.

Locally in the San Francisco Bay Area this meant that rail systems that carried people from San Francisco to San Mateo, San Jose to Palo Alto, Sausalito to Manor, and even Oakland to Walnut Creek and Sacramento were slowly removed and replaced with buses that were not as environmentally sensitive or useful to the growing local population.

To learn more watch this YouTube video:

As a replacement after decades of meetings and discussions, the building of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system was started in 1964. Eight years later the first trains started to roll. Interestingly enough the system was actually opened for public use on September 11th, 1972. The problem today is that it has yet to even come close to providing the kind of service coverage that the various independent services had provided in the early 1900’s and yet the population of the area is much greater and the need as well.

So where are we today? With the sad reality that cities like Redwood City are studying the potential of bringing back limited trolley services from in Redwood City’s case downtown to the Stanford in Redwood City area. But as noted in a recent Politico article

"There are a few basic things he says a city needs for a streetcar to work: dense population, easy walkability, a line that moves relatively quickly and some frequency of service. 'If you can get all four, you will have a smashing success'"

Note the importance of frequency. For as the article goes on to explain:

"Even if you’re a tourist with no place to be, waiting for half an hour at a trolley stop isn’t going to make a Top 10 list of vacation experiences. That means trolleys have to run frequently enough that you don’t resort to calling an Uber."

Or worse yet have a situation like today when a power line fell near the West Oakland tracks and suspended BART service allowing Uber and Lyft's surge pricing to jump to the stratosphere. But it isn't only price that is the issue, the real impact of Uber and buses is in the increased greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to trains and trolleys. Just for fun you can use the Stanford Commute Cost and Carbon Emissions Calculator and see what difference you will make when you use different transportation options.