The Alameda Belt Line was incorporated on January 12, 1925, to take over about of trackage constructed by the city of

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda (island), Alam ...

, on Clement Avenue in 1918. The company acquired the property on February 17, 1926, and was jointly owned by the

Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...

and the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

. Due to mergers, it was eventually jointly owned and operated by the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

and

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. The ABL last operated in 1998, when its major shipper, a Del Monte cannery, closed. The Union Pacific then operated over the line through

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may con ...

to serve one remaining shipper until late 2001. The final locomotive on the line was leased to the Central California Traction Company in Stockton, California. On January 28, 1999, the land was sold to a developer who planned to build approximately 200 homes on the former

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

. The city of Alameda went to court to get the land returned to the city, in order to turn the property into a

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to re ...

, and won, per a provision in the original 1920s contract which gave the city the right to repurchase the land at the original sale price of $30,000 (). The judge's ruling put the city's purchase price at $966,027, significantly less than the $18 million sale price to the developer. , only a few pieces of its trackage still remain in place. Most rails have been removed or paved over. The line was formally abandoned in 2012. For much of its later history, the ABL was operated in concert with the Oakland Terminal Railway.

References

External links

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

, Valuation Docket No. 1167: Alameda Belt Line, decided May 31, 1933 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alameda Belt Line Defunct California railroads Railway companies established in 1925 Railway companies disestablished in 2007 BNSF Railway lines Union Pacific Railroad lines Western Pacific Railroad Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway American companies established in 1925 Closed railway lines in the United States Atchison,_Topeka_and_Santa_Fe_Railway_lines