New Canaan Branch

New Canaan Branch
New Canaan station in New Canaan, CT.
Overview
Type	regional rail
System	Metro-North
Locale	Stamford, CT to New Canaan, CT
Termini	Stamford New Canaan
Stations	5 (+1 proposed)
Operation
Owner	Connecticut DOT
Operator(s)	New Canaan RR (1868-1879) Stamford & New Canaan RR (1883-1884) NY,NH&H (1884-1969) Penn Central (1969-1971) ConnDOT (lessor 1971-1976, owner 1976-present) Metro-North (operator 1983-present)
Character	Commuter rail
Technical
Track length	13.2 km (8.2 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge)
Electrification	12,500 V AC catenary
Route map Legend 8.2 mi (13.2 km) New Canaan Merritt Parkway 6.2 mi (10.0 km) Talmadge Hill 3.9 mi (6.3 km) Springdale 2.2 mi (3.5 km) Glenbrook New Haven Line Amtrak SLE East Stamford (proposed) 0.0 mi (0 km) Stamford New Haven Line Amtrak

Metro North Railroad's New Canaan Branch is a short branch of their New Haven Line from a junction east of downtown Stamford, Connecticut north to New Canaan. It opened in 1868 as the New Canaan Railroad.

Station stops

Splits from New Haven Line

• Stamford (also Amtrak Acela Express, Northeast Regional and Vermonter)
• Glenbrook in Stamford (originally on the New Haven line; moved to the New Canaan line in the 1950s)^[1]
• Springdale in Stamford
• Talmadge Hill in New Canaan
• New Canaan, the terminus

Proposed station

As of July 2007, a Stamford East Side station under consideration for this line or just past it on the New Haven line^[1]

History

The New Canaan Railroad was chartered in May 1866 as a short branch of the New York and New Haven Railroad. It opened July 4, 1868 when a train ran from Stamford to New Canaan.^[2] Within a year of the opening of operations a branch from the NY&NH main line south in Stamford to the pier at the Pine Island Steamboat Landing was opened to allow passengers and freight to switch to steamboats running on Long Island Sound.^[3] Despite such attempts to increase revenue on January 1, 1879 the company went bankrupt, and it was reorganized in 1883 as the Stamford and New Canaan Railroad. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the line on October 1, 1884, and on October 1, 1890 it was merged into the NYNH&H.

The NYNH&H was merged into Penn Central in 1969. On January 1, 1971, the State of Connecticut leased operation of passenger service along the New Canaan Branch to Penn Central for $100,000 per year. ^[4] On April 10, 1972 Penn Central briefly suspended off-peak service on the branch to install high-level platforms at stations.^[5] In 1983 the Metro-North Commuter Railroad took over the operation of trains on the branch.^[6]

Like the New Haven mainline, the entire branch is electrified, although it is currently the only electrified branch. All service is provided by MNRR's Cosmopolitan EMU cars, usually with a two-pair or triplet-and-a-pair consist. Except for the storage tracks at the New Canaan, this branch is single-tracked. Most trains operate as a shuttle between Stamford and New Canaan; a few peak trains run through to Grand Central Terminal on weekday mornings and return in the evening.

The film The Ice Storm features the New Canaan branch extensively, with M-2 cars (although dressed in Penn Central markings for the 1973 setting).

See also

• Connecticut Rail Commuter Council is the official state advocate for train commuters and brings station problems to the attention of officials.
• The New Canaan Branch Line Details of the railroad that has been integral to the development of Fairfield County, Connecticut, with interactive maps, photographs, and information about the rail line's history.
• List of New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad precursors

Gallery

• 

  The end of the line

References

• Railroad History Database
• Philip C. Blakeslee, A Brief History Lines West Of The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co. (1953)

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Hughes, C.J. (July 8, 2007). "Living in Glenbrook, Conn.; The Little Town in the City". The New York Times: p. RE9. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/realestate/08livi.html. Retrieved 2011-07-29. 
2. ^ "About the New Canaan Branch Line". http://www.imediaet.com/ncrr/fs/home.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 
3. ^ Rosemary H. Burns. "New Canaan Railroad History". http://www.imediaet.com/ncrr/fs/home.htm. 
4. ^ Christopher T. Baer. "PRR CHRONOLOGY 1971 (June 2005 Edition)" (PDF). http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1971%20Jun%2005.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 
5. ^ Christopher T. Baer. "PRR CHRONOLOGY 1972 (June 2005 Edition)" (PDF). http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1972%20Jun%2005.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 
6. ^ Peter A. Cannito. "On MTA Metro-North Railroad's 25th Anniversary". Archived from the original on 2008-04-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20080424094106/http://mta.info/mnr/html/how_does_one.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-13.