page_title: North Shore Branch
section_title: Route description
hierarchical_section_title: North Shore Branch / Route description
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking northeast along Nicholas Avenue overpass on a sunny early afternoon.
context_page_description: The North Shore Branch is an abandoned branch of the Staten Island Railway in New York City, which operated along Staten Island's North Shore from Saint George to Port Ivory. The line continues into New Jersey via the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge to Cranford Junction.
  The line started construction in 1884, and rapid transit service on the line started on February 23, 1886. Passenger service ended on March 31, 1953, and freight service ended by 1989. In 2005, freight service on the western portion of the line was reactivated, and there are proposals to reactivate the former passenger line for rail or bus service.
context_section_description: The North Shore branch of the SIRT began at Saint George Terminal, using the northernmost platform and tracks of the terminal. After running through the St. George Freight Yard (near the modern Ballpark Station), the line ran on the shore of the Kill Van Kull from New Brighton to West Brighton. The line ran on land between St. George and New Brighton, and on a ballast-filled wood trestle supported by a wood retaining wall through Livingston and West Brighton. Though the right-of-way is distinguishable, little evidence of this portion of the line exists today, except for abandoned tracks and supports, much of which has eroded into the kill.
  Beyond West Brighton near a NYCDEP water pollution control facility, the line rose onto a reinforced concrete trestle known as the Port Richmond Viaduct, crossing Bodine Creek and running for about a mile through the Port Richmond neighborhood. West of Nicholas Avenue near Port Richmond High School, the line entered an open cut, crossing under the Bayonne Bridge approach and continued west to the Arlington Yard and station at South Avenue. Rapid transit service continued via a northern spur to Port Ivory; freight service passed the current Howland Hook Marine Terminal (adjacent to Port Ivory) and crossed the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge to Cranford Junction in New Jersey. The right-of-way from the Port Richmond Viaduct to Arlington Yard has remained intact and in good condition, though the former station sites and infrastructure are dilapidated and need rehabilitation or replacement should passenger service be reactivated.
caption: The overpass over Nicholas Avenue (looking east) between the Port Richmond Viaduct and the open-cut section of the line.
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