The Bayshore Cutoff (originally the Southern Pacific Bay Shore Cut-Off) is the rail line between San Francisco and San Bruno along the eastern shore (San Francisco Bay side) of the San Francisco Peninsula. It was completed by Southern Pacific (SP) in 1907 at a cost of $7 million (equivalent to $ adjusted for inflation), and included five tunnels, four of which are still used by Caltrain, the successor to Southern Pacific's Peninsula Commute service. Fill from the five tunnels was used to build the Visitacion or Bayshore Yard, the main SP classification yard near the city of Brisbane. The Del Monte was similarly rerouted over the line at some point in its operational history.
The original alignment of the Coast Line completed in 1863 took it around the western side of San Bruno Mountain, through Colma and Daly City. Rail traffic along the original route needed helper engines for grades and curves along a route nearly long. The Bayshore Cutoff reduced the distance to with a maximum grade of 0.3 percent.
Once the Bayshore Cutoff was completed, and main line traffic was shifted to it, the former route was renamed the Ocean View Branch line. It was used to carry coffins to Colma; it was severed in the 1940s, but a few miles at the south end was still in SP's 1996 timetable. In the late 1980s BART purchased the right-of-way of the Ocean View line for the San Francisco International Airport extension south from Daly City.
Bayshore Cutoff Tunnel 5, at Sierra Point, was abandoned when the easternmost tip of the point was leveled during construction of the Bayshore Freeway in 1955–56, and the line was rerouted through the leveled section as well. The rail yard was in operation until the 1970s, and the site is currently being considered for redevelopment for light industrial/retail use as part of the Brisbane Baylands development project.
History
The original route between San Francisco and San Bruno was laid by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad (SF&SJ), one of the companies that later was absorbed into the Southern Pacific (SP). From the station in San Francisco at Mariposa and 18th, tracks were laid generally bearing west-southwest through the Mission District close to the present-day route of San Jose Avenue.
Southern Pacific took over the Peninsula Corridor in 1870 from the SF&SJ and began operating the Peninsula Commute between San Francisco and San Jose. Surveys were conducted for an alternate route east of San Bruno Mountain as early as 1878 and in 1894, it was revealed that SP had secretly purchased a more direct route along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay through an agent, Alfred E. Davis, who had previously been the manager to James G. Fair, the financier of the South Pacific Coast Railroad, a narrow-gauge railroad from Oakland to Santa Cruz. The Bay Shore line to South San Francisco opened from the south in May 1892, which would be integrated into the final alignment. By 1900, the Bayshore Cutoff route, including five tunnels, had been designed and plans were announced to start work "within a few weeks". The San Francisco Board of Supervisors attempted to compel SP to start using the Bayshore route by passing an ordinance in 1900 directing the Board of Public Works (BPW) to tear up the existing tracks. SP was granted an injunction to prevent that action, but BPW Commissioner Maguire planned to bring witnesses "to testify that the clanging of bells, shrieks of whistles, etc., interferes with the comfort and peace of the surrounding residents."
SP announced firm plans to build the Bayshore Cutoff and double-track the line in late 1901. President E. H. Harriman reiterated SP's plans to construct the Cutoff in mid-1902, predicting completion within the calendar year. Double-tracking from south to San Jose was announced as well, and completed by 1903. In conjunction with the Dumbarton Cutoff, the Bayshore Cutoff was designed to facilitate transcontinental rail service into San Francisco. Instead of being a remote spur terminal, San Francisco would become "practically the same as a main line station" with the completion of the two new cutoffs, and transcontinental freight could then be loaded directly on trains without having to be ferried across the Bay.
The San Jose-based Evening News touted the benefits of the Cutoff, saying the fifteen minute savings in travel time combined with a more temperate climate would naturally lead to increased population in San Jose: "The warmer, drier and more even climatic conditions make [San Jose] far preferable for residence to a place where the men feel the need of an overcoat in the evening of the warmest days, and where the ladies scarcely know what it is to dress in light clothing and walk out in the evening." In 1903, the route of the Bayshore Cutoff was adjusted slightly; the original route called for tracks along Islais and Tulare streets, which due to their narrow width, would have closed those streets to any other traffic. Over a one-year period, Joseph B. Coryell acted as agent for SP to purchase properties bordering Islais Creek to allow the rerouting of the line.
The Bayshore Railway company was founded as a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific to build the Bayshore Cutoff. Construction started in 1904 and was completed in 1907 at a cost of $7 million (equivalent to $ in ), one of the most expensive rail lines constructed to date. In comparison, the Lucin Cutoff, which included a trestle across the northern end of the Great Salt Lake and saved of distance, cost $9 million. The Bayshore Cutoff, along with the Lucin and Montalvo Cutoffs, alleviated three key bottlenecks for Southern Pacific.
Rail traffic to San Francisco shifted over to the new Bayshore Cutoff immediately and has remained on that route ever since. Caltrain now runs daily commuter trains through four of the tunnels built for the Bayshore Cutoff. The fifth tunnel at Sierra Point was bypassed with the completion of the Bayshore Freeway about 1956.
The prior route west of San Bruno Mountain was renamed the Ocean View line and relegated to branch status. Although the Ocean View line was severed in 1942, the rails remained in place until the right-of-way was sold to the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and construction began on the SFO BART extension. Other potential routes proposed for the BART extension included an aerial structure along El Camino Real and a rail line parallel to I-280/380.
SP also completed a rail yard at Visitacion near the city of Brisbane. SP had previously purchased Visitacion Cove and partially filled it using earth excavated from the tunnels as well as mud dredged from the Bay. The yard was used to assemble trains and a large roundhouse and shops were used for steam locomotive maintenance. After diesel locomotives replaced steam by 1958 (the last steam locomotive in SP's system was a Peninsula Commute engine, which ran on January 22, 1957), the yard was used less frequently. SP consolidated freight operations at Oakland in 1964, and the Bayshore Yard began to be dismantled in 1979. The last day of work at the Bayshore shops was October 25, 1982; the land was sold to Universal Paragon in 1989.
Design The line included five tunnels, numbered north to south, and a former railyard near Brisbane, the Visitacion or Bayshore Yard. The historic Bayshore Roundhouse, previously used to service SP's steam locomotives, still exists at the yard. The first four tunnels are within the city limits of San Francisco.
The maximum grade of the completed Bayshore Cutoff is (0.3% grade) compared to the 3% maximum grade of the older route. The maximum elevation of the Bayshore Cutoff is , while the prior route rose to above sea level. The total distance between San Francisco and San Bruno along the Cutoff is , saving over the original route west of San Bruno Mountain. The original 1900 design called for an aggregate length of the two tunnels under Potrero Hill and Sierra Point of .
After completion, travel time from San Jose to San Francisco was cut from two hours to ninety minutes (for local trains) and seventy minutes (for limited-stop trains). The Evening News breathlessly advertised "the annihilation of seventeen minutes in a schedule" in an article covering the opening of the Cutoff.
Although the Bayshore Cutoff is double-tracked, the right-of-way outside the tunnels is sized to accommodate quad tracks. Quad tracks were added in Brisbane as part of the Caltrain Express project from 2004 to 2006.
Construction Initial bids on construction costs ranged between $2 and $2.5 million (between $ and $ in adjusted for inflation). Preliminary work began in April 1904, and actual construction started on October 26 of that year. An earthquake in late November 1904 was at first mistaken for blasting being done for the Cutoff. Work on the first tunnel (which was later designated Tunnel No. 5) at Sierra Point began on April 18, 1905, and at the time it was predicted that revenue service would begin on December 31, 1906. A week and a half later, a steam shovel had excavated (starting from the south portal) and work had begun on the second tunnel (later designated Tunnel No. 4), which had reached a length of . After the Lucin Cutoff was completed, workers on that job moved to the Bayshore project, and orders were placed for forty iron arches, each spanning , to be used in tunnel construction.
By May 1905, good progress was being made, as workers excavating the tunnel had found "nothing harder than sand and earth", but they were forced to wear rubber clothes due to the damp conditions. Two shifts of work were started in June, and the stone blocks to be used in the portals had arrived at Tunnel 5. By July, work on the final tunnel (later designated Tunnel No. 3) had started, and SP General Manager E.E. Calvin confidently predicted all tunnels would be completed in 1906. Heavy rain during February 1906 damaged the roadbed between South San Francisco and San Bruno when the final stages of construction were about to commence.
Work was being performed in two shifts when the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck in April. Workers in Tunnel 3 (below the orphanage) were terrified by the shaking, which extinguished the lamps they were using, but no one was injured and the tunnel was not damaged. After the earthquake, construction continued. Earthquake survivors were unnerved by blasting for the tunnels, which they thought were aftershocks. Some of the areas for the Bayshore Cutoff route south of China Basin were filled with rubble from the earthquake, allowing more rapid progress than planned. SP officials announced in August 1906 the estimated completion date for the Bayshore Cutoff would be January 24, 1907. Once the Cutoff was in place, they stated that more frequent service would be offered for commuters, with headways of 30 minutes and total travel time to San Jose estimated at one hour.
By July 1907, four bridges still needed to be completed for the Cutoff, touted to be "one of the fastest pieces of railroad in the United States" once it was completed. The steel girders were delayed in transit and the completion date of the Cutoff was delayed from October to November 1907. A final carload of steel was rushed from Ogden to complete the Fifth Avenue crossing, and the first planned passenger trains to use the Cutoff would be for fans from San Francisco traveling to Stanford to watch a football game. The new line officially opened on December 8, 1907.
Tunnels Average progress on the tunnels was . The aggregate length of the five tunnels is as completed ( as designed), which is one-fifth of the entire length of the Bayshore Cutoff. Each tunnel shares the same cross-section design, being a semicircular arch wide to accommodate two tracks spaced apart (centerline to centerline). Overall height in the center of the tunnel is , with clearance of above the top of the rail at each track centerline. The tracks are elevated above the tunnel floor by ballast and ties.