50 plus items including: 37 time tables; 1 Candrians A-Z Street Guide, 1935 with folding map of Oakland and East Bay; 1 folding brochure map of the system, 1951-52; 11pp. typed or mimeographed, detailed descriptions of Key System Transit & Motor Coach Lines, 1949; also 2 pp. on East Bay Transit Railway Lines & 5 pp. on E. B. T. R. Motor Coach Lines, [c.1949]; 5 Transit Tickets; Vol 1. no. 10 of public relations weekly, Key Notes on Transit Etiquette; 2 brochures announcing New One Way Street Changes and Coaches Replacing Street Cars!; plus assorted notes, etc. "The Key System (or Key Route) was a privately-owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960 when the system was sold to a newly formed public agency, AC Transit. The Key System consisted of local streetcar and bus lines operating solely in the East Bay, and a network of commuter rail and bus lines connecting cities and neighborhoods in the East Bay to San Francisco by way of a ferry pier extending out into San Francisco Bay, and later, via the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. At its height during the 1940s the Key System had over 66 miles of track that connected the communities of Richmond, Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Leandro to San Francisco. The local streetcars were discontinued in 1948 and the commuter trains to San Francisco were discontinued in 1958. The Key System's original territory is today served by BART and AC Transit bus service." [Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia Encyclopedia]. From it's origin as the Oakland Consolidated Street Railway between Oakland and Berkeley, the system really gained traction so to speak when mining magnate Francis M. "Borax" Smith and Frank C. Havens bought the line and other independent lines and consolidated them. After further expansion and subsequent collapse, what had become the Key Route was placed into receivership until reorganized as the Key System Transit Co. in 1923. Generally very good condition.

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