They shut the trolleys down for a while, starting in 82, to rehab them. I was living in Oakland then and actually bought a ticket to ride it on the last day, rather than my normal practice of jumping on without one, then getting back off when the conductor was headed my way. I was a much worse scofflaw then than I am now.
They shut them down once before in the mid-70’s, but I think it was “loss of revenue.”
At any rate, we were long gone when they started up again.