Branch line

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A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a "spur line". David Blyth Hanna, the first president of the Canadian National Railway, said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are essential to make main lines pay. [Hanna, David Blyth, Macmillan 1924] [Dow, Andrew, "Dow's Dictionary of Railway Quotations", JHU Press 2006]

United Kingdom

Many British branch lines were closed as a result of the "Beeching Axe" in the 1960s, although some have been re-opened as heritage railways.

The smallest branch line that is still in operation in the UK is the Stourbridge Town Branch Line from Stourbridge Junction going to Stourbridge Town. This only has one track. The journey is 1/3 of a mile (about 500 m) and the train takes around 55 seconds to complete its journey.

North America

In North America, little used branch lines are often spun off from larger railroads to become new common carrier short-line railroads of their own.

New Zealand

New Zealand once had a very extensive network of branch lines, especially in the South Island regions of Canterbury, Otago, and Southland. Many were built in the late 19th century to open up regions inland from coastal harbours and cities for farming and other economic activities. The branches in the aforementioned South Island regions were often general-purpose lines that carried predominantly agricultural traffic, but lines elsewhere were often built to serve a specific resource: on the West Coast, an extensive network of branch lines was built in rugged terrain to serve coal mines, while in the central North Island and the Bay of Plenty, lines were built inland to provide rail access to large logging operations.

Today, many of the branch lines have been closed, including almost all of the general-purpose country lines. Those that remain serve ports or industries not located near main lines such as coal mines, logging operations, large dairying factories, and steelworks. In Wellington, two branch lines exist solely for commuter passenger trains. For more, see the list of New Zealand railway lines.

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