The F 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 connected San Francisco with Emeryville 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 the foundational

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.

History

Business interests controlled by Francis Marion "Borax" Smith obtained a franchise to run streetcars on Shattuck and Adeline streets by June 1902, seeking to directly compete the parallel

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names ...

Berkeley Branch Railroad The Berkeley Branch Railroad was a long branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) from a junction in what later became Emeryville called " Shellmound" to what soon became downtown Berkeley, adjacent to the new University of Califo ...

. The line opened for traffic on October 26 the following year complete with a ferry connection to San Francisco. The service was very successful, with the number of scheduled trains doubling within the first month of operation. Key System cars began sharing trackage along Shattuck with the Southern Pacific starting in 1930, though Adeline trains were discontinued past Alcatraz Avenue after March 31, 1933. Cars began running across 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 ...

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 F and

rollsign A destination sign (North American English) or destination indicator/destination blind (British English) is a sign mounted on the front, side or rear of a public transport vehicle, such as a bus, tram/streetcar or light rail vehicle, that di ...

s reading ''Berkeley via Shattuck Avenue''. The line was extended over former Interurban Electric Railway trackage to Hopkins and Sutter Streets (the stop formerly called Northbrae) to the Northbrae Tunnel beginning August 6, 1941, reestablishing service to downtown Berkeley. Service was extended through the tunnel to a new terminal at Solano Avenue and The Alameda on December 6, 1942. The five-car train necessary for rush hour services was locally referred to as the ''City of Berkeley'' (a reference to mainline transcontinental rail services in operation at the time). Rail service ended after April 20, 1958, and motor coaches began operating on the line.

Public ownership

AC Transit took over operation of the Key system's assets in October 1960. By then, the F's route had been established to run on Market Street in Oakland. In September 1961, service was extended down

Solano Avenue Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany, California is a two-mile (3.2 km) long east-west street. Solano Avenue is one of the larger shopping districts in the Berkeley area. Businesses along Solano Avenue cover a wide range, including grocer ...

for evening and Saturday runs, a move which was further applied to all trips starting in 1970. In 1973, some trips were extended slightly further down San Pablo to Buchanan, similarly applied to all service in 1975. Buses ceased serving the Transbay Terminal on August 7, 2010, and the San Francisco terminus was moved to the Temporary Transbay Terminal. The F line began running to 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. ...

on August 12, 2018.

References

Bibliography

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External links

F Line
— via AC Transit 1903 establishments in California Railway lines opened in 1903 Railway lines closed in 1958 Public transportation in Alameda County, California Transportation in Oakland, California Bus routes in San Francisco Transportation in Berkeley, California AC Transit bus routes