Editing San Francisco Transbay Terminal (section)

===Train service===
[[Governor of California|Governor]] [[Frank Merriam]] piloted the first (ceremonial) electric train across the bridge on September 23, 1938,<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/Californiahighways/chpw_1938_oct.pdf |title=Governor Merriam Pilots First Train Across Bay Bridge |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=October 1938 |volume=16 |number=10 |pages=18–19 |journal=California Highways and Public Works |publisher=California Department of Highways and Public Works |accessdate=24 March 2016}}</ref> although regular service did not commence until January 1939, after the terminal was complete. Trains were controlled with a custom electric switchboard, which was considerably simpler than the typical mechanical lever system then in use.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/Californiahighways/chpw_1938_sep.pdf |title=Bay Bridge Train Movements Controlled By Push Buttons |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=September 1938 |volume=16 |number=9 |pages=24–25 |journal=California Highways and Public Works |publisher=California Department of Highways and Public Works |accessdate=24 March 2016}}</ref> A loop was built so trains could turn around and go back across the bridge. Even after rail service ended, the loop continued to be used by [[AC Transit]], [[Amtrak Thruway]] and [[Greyhound Lines|Greyhound]] buses until the station closed. Surprisingly, a track was never made to connect to the [[Southern Pacific Transportation Company|Southern Pacific]]'s [[Third and Townsend Depot]] so trains could go further south. There were six tracks. Beginning on January 15, 1939, half of all [[Market Street Railway (transit operator)|Market Street Railway]] trains were rerouted to a loop in front of the building; all services were eventually rerouted here in 1941.<ref name=Chronology>{{Muni Chronology}}</ref>

By November 1940, the Interurban Electric Company was seeking permission to abandon East Bay service, prompting Director Clark to consider proposals for the state to assume operation of trains across the bridge.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AS4xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LuQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3821%2C1432375 |title=State Operation of Bay Trains Urged |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=18 November 1940 |agency=UP |newspaper=Berkeley Daily Gazette |accessdate=24 March 2016 }}</ref> The SP and Sacramento Northern trains ceased service across the Bay in 1941 only two years after the Terminal was completed. Interurban stated they were forced to discontinue service, citing falling passenger counts, revenues, and a failed proposed consolidation with the Key System.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XloiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZqYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1684%2C4494152 |title=S.P. Would Abandon Train Lines to S.F. |author=Johnson, Hal |date=26 February 1940 |newspaper=Berkeley Daily Gazette |accessdate=24 March 2016 |quote=President A.T. Mercier said: 'This action was made inevitable by circumstances beyond our control.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;'While patronage on this transbay commuter service has been declining and has been unremunerative [sic] for years, the losses have increased from the date of completion of the Bay Bridge in November, 1936. In 1920 there were 22,657,418 transbay passengers carried in this service, as compared with 9,937,466 in 1939, while the population of the East Bay cities and San Francisco increased more than 50 per cent in the same period. [...]<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;'Loss of business to vehicular travel over the bridge has been given impetus by progressive reduction of automobile tolls from 65 cents to 35 cents. Fur[ther] reduction in tolls is being considered, which would bring further increased losses to the Interurban. [...]<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;'Every possible solution of the problem looking to economies of operation or possibility of consolidation of the Interurban Electric with the Key System, has been considered. All of these efforts have failed, and we are, therefore, left with no alternative but to abandon our service at the earliest practicable date.' }}</ref> After Interurban was granted permission to discontinue service, Sacramento Northern also applied to discontinue service in 1941.<ref name=BG19410502>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SrE1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=0KMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1128%2C251104 |title=U.C. Man to Make Survey of Span Transport Lines |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=2 May 1941 |newspaper=Berkeley Daily Gazette |accessdate=24 March 2016}}</ref> Sacramento Northern carried only a minuscule fraction (less than 1%) of the total rail traffic over the Bay Bridge,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bU0xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=m-QFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5183%2C2512421 |title=Bay Bridge Traffic Declines in August |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |agency=UP |date=30 September 1940 |newspaper=Berkeley Daily Gazette |accessdate=24 March 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HTES19400325.2.85 |title=Commuters Do Get Around Quite a Lot |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |agency=UP |date=25 March 1940 |newspaper=Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar |accessdate=24 March 2016 }}</ref> which meant Sacramento Northern likely also operated at a loss. Trains carried 37.334 million passengers across the Bay Bridge at peak ridership in 1945, driven in part by gasoline rationing, but ridership declined precipitously, managing to move only 6.113 million passengers in 1957.<ref name=CHPW1960>{{cite journal |url=http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/Californiahighways/chpw_1960_julaug.pdf |title=Bay Bridge: First Phases of Reconstruction For Added Capacity Completed |author=Raab, N.C. |date=July–August 1960 |volume=39 |number=7–8 |pages=35–42 |journal=California Highways and Public Works |publisher=Division of Highways, California Department of Public Works |accessdate=24 March 2016}}</ref> The Key System successfully petitioned the Public Utilities Commission to discontinue service across the Bay Bridge in 1955 due to falling revenues, after failing to discontinue service in an unsuccessful 1953 petition. The Oakland City Planning Commission reported that since 1945, all the petitions from the Key System had invariably asked for cuts to service and increased fares, which also contributed to declining ridership.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.15779/Z38K175 |title=BART and the Victoria Line: A Comparison of New Commuter Transport in California and London |author1=Griffith, John |author2=Holmes, Dallas |journal=California Law Review |volume=55 |number=3 |date=August 1967 |page=780 |quote=On July 24, 1953, a strike paralyzed Key System for seventy-six days. The California Public Utilities Commission refused to grant permission to Key System to abandon its train service on "A" and "B" transbay lines. [...] [In February 1954,] Key System applied to the Commission to cut services further. This was granted whereupon Key System announced that it contemplated still more curtailments and asked for tax relief of $188,000 per year. [...] In July [1954], Key System served public notice that it intended to abandon all transbay trains and substitute coaches within one or two years. [...] In October [1954], Key System was allowed by the Public Utilities Commission to curtail services on the East Bay motor coach lines and to increase fares [...] In January 1955, Key System applied to abandon all its rail services, and a rapid transit district was created in the East Bay to replace it.}}</ref> The last train crossed the bridge on {{end date|1958|04|20}}, less than twenty years after service was inaugurated in 1939, despite the vital role the trains played. There have been several attempts to restore rail service across the bridge (though not necessarily into the Transbay Terminal), but none have been successful.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

[[File:Ex-Kobe streetcar 578 turning into SF Transbay Terminal in 1987.jpg|thumb|left|During the 1987 [[San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival]], streetcar 578, formerly of [[Kobe, Japan]], turns into the Transbay Terminal loop in scheduled service on the F-Market line.]]