Today there’s only one rail line running down the San Francisco Peninsula. In the early 1900s, there was a number of spurs around the south bay in addition to inter-city electric lines which made it easy to get around. By 1931, the system had 34 streetcars on 90 miles of track. Then the automobile took off and that was the beginning of the end of the rail lines. The “Vasona Branch” connected Palo Alto to the Saratoga area, but it was ripped out in 1964 to build Foothill Expressway. There were rumors that Goodyear had something to do with the decision to end rail service. The old station in Los Altos is a gorgeous building and has housed a number of businesses since train service ended. It was just renovated and looks great.
The loss of the train infrastructure, or the electric trolly’s, is the saddest part, because those are billions to replace in today’s rebuilding costs and it won’t happen.
Whereas, ten years ago in Ohio the people could go across town for fifty cents, probably costs a lot more now. The city that kept up their infrastructure preserved the cheapest, and cleanest form of public transportation. Today to rebuild is not cost effective nor could the people afford to ride, if those costs were passed on...’it was a missed opportunity about the trolley train removal’ and in exchange their diesel, pollution, buses that they bought cheap are now expensive to maintain, replace, and meet regulations.
I would say the San Francisco Peninsula was best seen by that system you described...too bad.