Golden Gate (train) - History

History

In 1912, The Santa Fe tried to compete with Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) for passenger service on this route by establishing overnight trains which included through cars to and from San Diego, the Saint train northbound and the Angel train southbound. The Santa Fe route was via San Bernardino and Barstow, which was appreciably longer than the SP's route via Glendale and Lancaster. These trains were withdrawn from service in 1918.

In 1936, the completion of (1) highway improvements on the Ridge Route highway between Los Angeles and Bakersfield and (2) the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge gave the Santa Fe a new opportunity to compete with the SP by offering faster service on these sections of the route. The lightweight Golden Gate streamliners were assigned train Nos. 60–63, and ran daily between Oakland (station was actually in Emeryville) and Bakersfield. Santa Fe buses connected between San Francisco across the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge to Oakland and between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, most with stops at North Hollywood and Hollywood and some with stops at Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena. The Oakland transfer point was later moved to Richmond with buses making stops at Oakland and Berkeley.

A direct competitor to the Southern Pacific Railroad's San Joaquin Daylight, the Golden Gate's scheduled 9-hour and 25-minute transit time bested that of the Daylight because of the long railroad route between Bakersfield and Los Angeles. After a series of public hearings and legal challenges were concluded, the first all-new, six-car consists entered revenue service on July 1, 1938. Standard fares were $6.00 for one-way travel, $10.80 round-trip, rates that were matched by the SP. The entire route comprised 312.8 rail miles and 112 bus miles.

In 1939, an additional train, the Valley Flyer was added to the Bakersfield-Oakland route to provide more access to the Golden Gate International Exposition. After 1940, with the Exposition over, this train was moved to the San Diego to Los Angeles route.

The Golden Gate was all but eliminated on April 11, 1965 though No. 62 was reassigned as No. 8 and took over the duties of the southbound Fast Mail Express. Service was ended once-and-for-all on April 28, 1968. Today, Amtrak California's San Joaquin runs the same route from Port Chicago to Bakersfield.