The E is a bus service operated by

AC Transit AC Transit is the main Public transport bus service, bus transit operator in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. AC Transit is the third largest bus operator in California, serving the western portions of Alameda and C ...

in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. It is one of the operator's many transbay routes, which are intended to provide riders a long-distance service across the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

between the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wi ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. It specifically serves the Claremont district straddling the city limits of

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

and

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

. The service is descendant of a

Key System The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area ...

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

and ferry line that operated prior to the formation of AC Transit. The line is noted for its role in the development of the Claremont Hotel.

Route description

From the outbound terminus where Caldecott Lane dead-ends at the Parkwood Community, coaches run on Caldecott Lane, which becomes Tunnel Road. After running one block on

Ashby Avenue Ashby may refer to: People * Ashby (surname) * Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby (1267–1314), governor of Rockingham Castle and steward of Rockingham Forest, England * Walter Ashby Plecker (1861–1947), American physician and publi ...

, buses turn southwest on Claremont Avenue and run until Highway 24. It then begins highway running, cross-bay on the

San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco an ...

before terminating at the

Salesforce Transit Center The Salesforce Transit Center, also known as the Transbay Transit Center, is a transit center in downtown San Francisco. It serves as the primary bus terminal for the San Francisco Bay Area, and is proposed as a possible future rail terminal. ...

History

The Claremont Line was the fourth streetcar line built by the

. It was built to exploit real estate development in the area and to support the operation of the forthcoming Claremont Hotel, which was being built by business interests connected to

Francis "Borax" Smith Francis Marion Smith (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California. He was known nationally and internationally as " ...

and the Key System. The company acquired a franchise in 1904 to operate on 55th Street, and service from the Berkeley main line to

Telegraph Avenue Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic Downtown Oakland, downtown district of Oakland, California, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of Califo ...

began on August 1, 1906 — the line was operated as a shuttle with connections to

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

cars along Adeline Street. Tracks were extended down Claremont Avenue to College in September the following year, with tracks reaching the Claremont Hotel property in December. Tracks terminated between the hotel's

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

s. Full train-ferry service to the site began on May 10, 1910, and the hotel would go on to open in 1915, giving the service a leisure-oriented destination for its outbound terminus. The line's expansion was successful in spurring development in the area. Cars began running across the

to the

Transbay Terminal The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street an ...

upon the facility's opening in 1939. The Key System adopted letter designations for its transbay routes at this time, with the Berkeley route designated as E. Rail service ended on April 19, 1958 and the line was thereafter operated by buses.

Public ownership

AC Transit took over operation of the Key system's assets in October 1960. In February 1961, the E Claremont's routing was changed to operate on 55th, Vicente, Ayala, Miranda, and Claremont. Motor coaches making transbay runs began operating on the Grove-Shafter Freeway in September 1969. Some rush hour trips were extended to the Parkwood Apartment complex starting December 1975. Buses ceased serving the Transbay Terminal on August 7, 2010, and the San Francisco terminus was moved to the Temporary Transbay Terminal. The E line began serving the

on August 12, 2018. Service ceased amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with operations suspended between April 2020 and August 2021.

References

Bibliography

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External links

E
— via AC Transit 1906 establishments in California Railway lines opened in 1906 Railway lines closed in 1958 Public transportation in Alameda County, California Bus routes in San Francisco Transportation in Berkeley, California AC Transit bus routes