Meet me in San Mateo on the #40 line

On April 27, 1892, the #40 electric streetcar line began service, with Baden (South San Francisco) its initial destination. Plans to go all the way to San Mateo would have to wait awhile. By May of 1901, the company had been sold to a Baltimore syndicate and the name changed slightly to the S.F. and San Mateo Electric Railway. More acquisitions were made, such as the Southern Pacific Market Street Railway and the Sutter Street Railway and together they were renamed the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR). They wasted no time in extending the #40 Line to San Mateo from the South San Francisco terminal, a distance of some 13 miles. Service began Jan. 1, 1903, with the shuttle from Baden to San Mateo taking about 40 minutes. By August of 1903, a through-service of 21 miles from San Francisco’s Fifth and Market streets began, with a 75-minute time to San Mateo. It cost a nickel then to ride in the "California” type trolley cars which had a closed center section, but both the front and back ends were open, making for a cool and breezy ride. And sometimes a wet one.

The #40 trolley line was so successful, there was talk of extending service all the way to San Jose, but the April 18, 1906 earthquake shook the idea to pieces. There was considerable damage to the existing track, but repairs were made quickly, with the line back in service by May 6. The president of the URR thought it was an opportune time to purchase new cars, not only for the electric line, but also to replace old cable cars. He found what he wanted in St. Louis, huge electric cars called interurbans, 52 feet long and weighing 75,640 pounds each, and closed to wind and weather. He bought 16 of them. The URR had been calling the #40 Line the "San Mateo Suburban line” and it wasn’t much of a surprise when people began calling the new cars the "Big Subs.” They were in use until 1923 when they were replaced.

The #40 Line was one of the most profitable for the URR group, in fact the line lived a charmed life. Ownership and management of the conglomerate changed several times over the years which could have sunk the line, but it kept bobbing back up like a cork. One of the extra services provided was a stop at Leipsic Junction in South San Francisco, allowing riders to transfer to the SSF Trolley that traveled along Grand Avenue to the stockyards at San Bruno Point. Besides getting people to work, the #40 Line got kids to school. The San Mateo Union High School District stretched all the way north to Millbrae and San Bruno, but the two high schools were located toward the south in Burlingame and San Mateo. Thousands of "high-school trippers” made the weekday commute during the #40 Line’s half century of operation, the Millbrae kids to Burlingame and the San Bruno kids to San Mateo.  At the end of each school day, the trolley cars would line up in front of the two high schools, patiently waiting for their scholars to emerge.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and Jill’s no fun either. The #40 Line carried the weary to the Coyote Point area in San Mateo where they could enjoy a little R & R at the Pacific City amusement park on the Bay. The park was short-lived, but the #40 Line enjoyed increased ridership at the time.

Another boost to the bottom-line of the #40 Line were the "Racetrack Specials,” trolleys loaded with optimists on their way to the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno. The stands were originally on the east side of the track before the builders noticed that strong ocean winds were blowing in from the west and practically air-lifting underweight spectators. The stands were later rebuilt on the west side, facing east. But one amenity of the first structure was the siding line that ran under the stands, special-delivering the optimists to the races, and presumably picking up the pessimists later on their way home.

There was one more way the #40 Line increased ridership: Funeral cars. The tracks had already been laid to Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Why not use them? Cypress Lawn, Mt. Olivet, Woodlawn, Eternal Cemetery and others were there too. The Southern Pacific RR had been providing funeral train service in the mid-1880s, but ceased soon after the SF/San Mateo Electric Company began theirs. There were spur-tracks into the entry areas, often provided by the cemeteries themselves.

In a Sept. 18, 1893 article from the San Francisco Chronicle, a reporter tells of a large crowd that had gathered to witness the departure of the first electric funeral car from Fifth and Harrison streets in San Francisco. The car was described as being painted in dark, polished colors, and was followed by two passenger cars which were to carry the mourners. The name "Cypress Lawn” was painted on the funeral car.

 The first horizontal passenger was a Mr. Napoleon B. Lazard, a native of Mississippi, 42 years of age. Mr. Lazard and his entourage arrived at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in just under an hour. The mourners were charged a fare of 10 cents each, and the deceased a fare of $10 (one-way, of course), the cost of loading and un-loading factored in.

Nothing lasts forever. Even though the #40 Line was still paying operating expenses, ridership was declining. The trolleys had been carrying over 4 million passengers a year, but now the Southern Pacific RR, whose tracks ran parallel to the #40, reduced their fares below the #40s, cutting into ridership. Greyhound buses were nipping at their cabooses too. And more and more cars were on the road as people began to drive themselves. The city of San Francisco decided it should not continue this transit system any farther than Daly City. San Mateo County said "Thanks, but no thanks!” when San Francisco offered them the #40 Line. Early on the morning of Jan. 16, 1949, the last electric trolley, #1235, departed from San Mateo. It really was the end of the line, the #40 Line. The tracks were torn up or paved over almost immediately. But for many years after, you could still see little glimpses here and there of the old trolley tracks on the center divider on El Camino Real in Daly City where the blacktop and the cement didn’t quite cover over. On a clear day and if you look very carefully, maybe you still can.