ELECTRIC TRACTION IN SANTA 

 CLAR A CO UNTY 



JOSEPH T. BROOKS 

 Secretary San Jose Chamber of Commerce 



SANTA CLARA COUNTY and the Santa Clara Valley constitute an 

 ideal location for development of electric roads, not alone because 

 of the equable all-year-round climate which attracts the tourist 

 from every part of the world, but as well for the many points of inter- 

 est and attractions which lie along the various routes already in oper- 

 ation in the territory named. We now have in operation and in the course 

 of construction one hundred and sixty four miles of electric roads in San 

 Jose and Santa Clara County, and will eventually reach San Francisco, 

 fifty miles away, with our electric service. 



At present three lines of road are operating in the County. The San 

 Jose, Los Catos, and Interurban Railroad Company is now operating 

 forty miles of trackage and building forty miles more. All of this is in the 

 central and western part of the valley, and will eventually reach San 

 Francisco. Included is a line direct to Stanford University, Palo Alto, and 

 Mayfield, which will open up a new city, which will bear the same relative 

 position to San Jose that Pasadena bears to Los Angeles. 



The San Jose Railroad Company is operating sixteen miles of trackage 

 in San Jose which extends to the immediately surrounding towns, of which 

 there are a number so closely connected with San Jose that it is but an 

 imaginary line that separates them from this larger city. 



The San Jose and Santa Clara Railroad has thirty miles of trackage, 

 and is now ready to extend its building operations thirty-eight miles more. 

 This company has in the course of construction twelve of the finest elec- 

 tric cars, costing $14,000 apiece and which will be ready for service next 

 spring. 



All of this electric traction mileage, built and building, is within the 

 County of Santa Clara. San Jose is the general center and the terminus 

 of each road. It is the beginning and ending of all the electric railroads 

 of the famous Santa Clara Valley. 



The power for this extensive electric service is rented by all of the roads 

 at a cheaper figure than they can afford to make it. It is produced entire- 

 ly in the mountains, where water furnishes a cheap means of making elec- 

 tric current on a large scale. 



In addition to the roads now in operation, it will be but a short time 

 when many of the local lines of the Southern Pacific system will be con- 

 verted into electric roads so that from San Jose one may tour the entire 

 eastern side of San Francisco Bay into Oakland and Berkeley via an elec- 

 tric traction system. 



Experience has taught that wherever the electric car presents an ap- 

 pearance values increase and the population increases rapidly. Build a 

 road into a desert and there will people go, but when the road is extended 

 into the most beautiful spots of a delightful country, there we find thou- 

 sands will make their homes because of the easy access and inviting 

 environs. 



Within a few years a new road will be in operation from San Jose to 

 Gilroy, which will open up to rapid-transit one of the most fertile sections 

 of the county. This road will run through Edenvale, Coyote, Morgan Hill, 

 and Rucker to Gilroy. 



Already surveys have been made to the Big Basin and also to Mt. 

 Hamilton for an electric roadway. 



Wells Fargo & Co. Express has seen the possibilities of an express ser- 

 vice on all interurban roads in the county, and has established such service, 

 so that the farmer or the person living at his country home may have his 

 goods delivered at his door, or in return send products to the cities along 

 the line. lo 



