

Construction of the highway had begun in 1931 to replace the aged and overcrowded Glenwood Highway (then called State Route 5). Passenger service out of Santa Cruz County was replaced with Pacific Greyhound buses.Ĭoncurrent with the activity along the railroad lines, California State Route 17 (henceforth Highway 17) was nearing completion.


After months of discussion and debate, during which time passenger service was rerouted along the Santa Cruz Branch along the coast, the portion of the San Jose-Santa Cruz Branch between Los Gatos and Olympia, two miles north of Felton, was abandoned on November 7, 1940. Twice-daily passenger service continued across the Santa Cruz Mountains via the San Jose-Santa Cruz Branch for the next two years but this too was discontinued on February 26, 1940, when catastrophic damage to the route caused by severe winter storms rendered the line impassible. On February 7, 1938, regularly-scheduled passenger service between Santa Cruz and Watsonville along the Southern Pacific Railroad Company’s Santa Cruz Branch was discontinued.
