Emeryville’s Greenway: How an Interurban Railway Became a Neighborhood Connection

By Matthew Martinez, Founder, CEO & Managing Broker, Diamond Real Estate Group. California DRE #01869679.

Emeryville’s Greenway is a route through the city and a surviving trace of an earlier transport system. Its alignment makes more sense when the passenger railway, later freight spur and present walking and cycling path are read as successive uses of the same corridor.

That history adds useful detail to a compact city’s public spaces. The Greenway is not simply a landscaped strip inserted between unrelated properties. Its continuity comes partly from a route established for another way of moving people and goods.

The corridor once belonged to a larger passenger network

The city’s rail history identifies the former spur as an East Bay Electric interurban line running toward Solano Avenue. It places that service within the competing passenger systems that developed in the early twentieth century.

The Emeryville Historical Society’s researched route account dates the Ninth Street Line to 1911. Passenger service ended in 1941, after which Southern Pacific operated a freight-only spur known as the Ninth Street Drill Track.

Those changes explain why a corridor can retain a recognizable physical path while its function changes considerably. The same alignment served regional passengers, industrial customers and eventually local public movement.

Industrial land use gave the freight spur a reason to remain

The historical society records freight operation continuing until 2001 as the northern city’s land uses changed. The city then acquired the abandoned route, with a North Hollis urban design plan approved in 2002.

A rail spur follows the needs of the businesses it serves. When those businesses change, the route’s original purpose may disappear even though the land remains useful as a connection through a built-up area.

This is a revealing part of Emeryville’s transformation. New residential and commercial activity occupied a landscape whose circulation and parcel relationships had been shaped by industry.

The public path emerged in sections

The historical society describes segments completed through public and private efforts over two decades, with the final portion of the 1.3-mile route completed through the Sherwin-Williams redevelopment in 2023.

The length and completion date are the society’s published account. They help distinguish the present route from older city documents describing an intended future connection.

That phased history is typical of the practical challenge a linear public space can present. A small missing section matters because it influences the continuity of the whole route. Completing a connection can make several earlier improvements work together more effectively.

Individual parks give the corridor different places to pause

The city’s current park directory lists the Greenway alongside Horton Landing, Huchiun and Peladeau parks. These are identifiable public places within the wider local network.

A corridor and a destination serve different purposes. The path supports movement through the city, while parks along or near it create reasons to stop. Their combined value comes from the ability to alternate between a route and a place. This gives a narrow former transport right-of-way a more varied public role than its dimensions alone might suggest.

For a home comparison, this makes the exact relationship worth understanding. A nearby park entrance, a useful connection through a block and a route to a routine destination can each contribute something different to daily life.

Our Emeryville housing settings guide introduces the broader residential context. The Greenway supplies a specific example of how industrial history continues to shape the experience of the modern city.

Explore real estate and home for sale in Emeryville, and contact Diamond to compare homes around the places and connections that matter to you.

Sources checked October 28, 2026. Historical service and path-completion dates follow the city and historical society’s published accounts.