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. 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. 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. On April 10, 1972 Penn Central briefly suspended off-peak service on the branch to install high-level platforms at stations. In 1983 the Metro-North Commuter Railroad took over the operation of trains on the branch.
Like the New Haven mainline, the entire branch is electrified, although it is currently the only electrified branch. Peak service is provided by MNRR's Cosmopolitan EMU cars, usually with a two-pair or triplet-and-a-pair consist. Beginning in 2011, off-peak shuttle service is also provided by the new Kawasaki M8. Except for the storage tracks at 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).
Read more about this topic: New Canaan Branch
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