page_title: New Haven Line
section_title: Danbury Branch study
hierarchical_section_title: New Haven Line / Service expansions / Danbury Branch study
caption_attribution_description: Metro-North station in Danbury, CT, USA. End of the New Haven Line's Danbury Branch
context_page_description: Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line runs from New Haven, Connecticut, southwest to Mount Vernon, New York. There it joins the Harlem Line, where trains continue south to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The New Haven Line carries 125,000 passengers every weekday and 39 million passengers a year. The busiest station is Stamford, with 8.4 million passengers, or 21% of the line's ridership.
  This line was originally part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, forming the southern leg of the New Haven's main line. It is colored red on Metro-North system maps and timetables; the New Haven used red in its paint scheme for much of the last decade of its history. The section from Grand Central to the New York-Connecticut border is owned by Metro-North, and the section from the state line to New Haven is owned by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. From west to east in Connecticut, three branches split off: the New Canaan Branch, Danbury Branch, and Waterbury Branch, all owned by ConnDOT.
  The New Haven Line is part of the Northeast Corridor; its share of the Northeast Corridor is the busiest rail line in the United States.
context_section_description: Although not yet past the Draft Environment Impact Statement stage, a study of enhancing service on and extending the Danbury Branch would include additional stations in North Danbury (Federal Road), Brookfield, and New Milford. The draft EIS was due by 2010, and the final EIS by 2011. The Spring 2009 Update for the first time held out the possibility of extension all the way to Pittsfield, MA, the original route of the New Haven Berkshire Division. Trackage rights would have to be negotiated with the Housatonic Railroad, which owns the line beyond Danbury to New Milford.
  Enhancements to the Danbury Branch being studied also include re-electrification of the branch (the branch was electrified from 1925 to 1961), addition of passing sidings, realignment and/or super-elevation of track to eliminate or alleviate curvature and enhance speeds, and installation of automated train control signalling. The new signal system finally began operation in 2013, but extensive work was still ongoing in 2014 because of unresolved problems with the drop gates at grade crossings.
  Earlier versions of the study examined service to Newtown and Brewster along the Beacon/Maybrook line, as additional branches off the Danbury Branch. These options were not recommended due to limited ridership potential versus additional cost.
caption: The Danbury Branch (which currently ends at Danbury) may be extended further north
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