Portsbury Direct Line

The Portsbury Direct Line is a railway line in southeastern Bayland, running from Cobbleheath, where it connects with the Bayfort Line, to Portsbury. Unlike the Bayfort Line, it runs via Whispin and Aldervale. The line is 116km long.
== History ==
The original Portsbury Direct Line opened in 1896. This line had a very low standard, even for the time.
In 1997, it was decided to rebuild the line, to allow for high speed operation. A completely new alignment was chosen as the best option between Whispin and Aldervale, while the ends of the line would see modifications to the old alignments. Construction was completed in December 2007 and the first train ran in March 2008. The line originally used BRIC1, but BRIC2 was installed on most of the line in 2016.
== Standard ==
The entire line is single-track with passing loops, but passing loops are more frequent on the lower-speed sections.
The section from Cobbleheath to Whispin is a significantly renovated section of line, allowing for 160km/h operation.
From Whispin to Aldervale, an entirely new line was built, replacing the previous line. It is built to a high standard, and allows for 225km/h.
The section from Aldervale to Portsbury was only lightly renovated, and only allows for 130km/h operation. It is the oldest part of the line and BRIC1 is still in use on this section, but ETCS is on trial here.
== Services ==
The line is notably not served by intercity or local trains, as the Bayfort Line is favoured for intercity trains to Portsbury, and the area the line runs through isn't very densely populated, and thus does not warrant local trains.
=== High-speed trains ===
Bayrail operates 8 high-speed trains per day per direction from Beachport to Portsbury, with an additional 2 trains per day from Bordertown to Portsbury which use the line.
Travel times by high-speed train
Route 	Time 	Distance	Average Speed
Beachport-Portsbury 	1h 45min	171km 	98km/h
Cobbleheath-Portsbury	1h 2min 	124km 	120km/h
Whispin-Aldervale 	30min 	67km 	134km/h
=== Regional trains ===
Regional train service is fairly light, with 11 trains per day per direction running on the whole line. There is also a regional train service between Portsbury and Aldervale, which runs hourly throughout the day.