Not all the lines shown here served concurrently. Most notable is that the SN
did not reach San Francisco until the year after the Peninsular was abandoned. However this does give a good overview of how many interurbans Northern California actually supported.Only the
SN, CCT
and Tidewater actually connected directly. Interurban like service also operated on the Marin County lines of the Northwestern Pacific, and the Key System and SP Electrics in Oakland are considered by some to have been interurbans. City trolley lines existed in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Stockton, Fresno and Sacramento.
SN and CCT
ran local service in Sacramento. SN also ran local service in Chico and Yuba City-Marysville, while the CCT ran some local service in Stockton.The Peninsular and the Calistoga Route ended early and are completely gone, however
substantial portions of the other lines survived as diesel freight haulers up until the early 1980's. Today, the Visalia Electric and Petaluma & Santa Rosa are complete abandoned. A few segments of the
SN remain under Union Pacific, Yolo Shortline/Sierra Northern and Bay Area
Electric Railway Association ownership. The CCT
claims the title of last surviving independent, operating today on its line from Lodi to Stockton with the recent addition of the Port of Stockton trackage. The Tidewater retains the most trackage, however, with some 75% of its mainline still getting polished regularly.
map by Eugene John Vicknair
