Crossharbor Line

The Crossharbor Line is a heavy metro line, part of KMAT. The Line has two branches which split at Dome Beach. The line contains the deepest tunnel in the whole system, the Crossharbor Extension Tunnel, and the deepest station in KMAT, being the Crossharbor Platforms at Monument.

## History

The Crossharbor Line is unique in that the majority of it is made up of old mainline railroads, with there even being a shared portion with the Stronghold Mainline.

### Crossharbor Railway

In 1922, there were plans to make a branch of the Stronghold Mainline to Ryder. The line would go underneath Kanton Harbor in a deep-bored tunnel, which would be the first of it's kind. In 1925, plans were revised to include an interchange at Randolph St, as well as provisions for a branch to Central Station. The line started construction in January 1926, and opened on July 1, 1931, with services from Ryder through running to Brenton Beach and Stronghold International, with some rush hour trains even making it as far as Scarborough Fair

In 1941, the Norton Hill branch opened, which had an intermediate stop at Sevenwaters. In 1946, Dripstone station closed after seeing lowering passenger numbers. In 1949, South Ryder closed for similar reasons, leaving trains to go non-stop from Cobalt Square to Ryder.

### Conversion Proposals

In 1950, there were proposals to turn the Norton Hill branch into a subway line, and to run mainline and subway trains on the same track. Subway trains would then go to Sulky Terrace after Brenton Beach. This plan was turned down in 1951 due to the intense logistics. In 1954 and 1957, plans of an outright conversion were brought up but denied at first. However, with the closing of Ryder station and it's branch in 1962, the Crossharbor Railroad approved the plans and gained funding for it. In 1965, the Crossharbor Line opened, though you still had to pay separate fares when transferring to other subway lines, except for at Brenton Beach, Codswald Avenue, and Sulky Terrace. In 1971, the Crossharbor Links program started, which planned to add 3 infill stations to the Crossharbor line. In 1972, West Faymere and Halwick stations opened, as well as Homestead Avenue-Dripstone Caves in 1974. In 1989, service was rerouted south of Brenton Beach to Woodbine and to serve the local stations at Fir Street and Lake Bodin, which previously were part of the mainline.

### Crossharbor 2

In 1991, the Ovington and Forest railway, rapidly approaching bankruptcy, closed their final streetcar line along Forest Road. Though replaced by the K11 and K71 buses, crowding on those buses became high, and in 1993, there were proposals to make a fifth line along Forest Road to terminate at Spawn Beach. Provisions were made in 1994 in the form of a stub of track between Spawn Beach and Port Ovington, but the plans never came through. In 2004, there was a new plan to branch off the Crossharbor Line to serve Forest Road, as well as the then-new Winterglade Mall. In 2007, the proposals were accepted and work started in building the second tunnel. The tunnel took 10 years to build, due to the massive delays and technical challenges along the way. The rest of the line was completed in early 2022, and is slated to open in the Fall of 2022.

### Proposals

There have been multiple proposals to extend the Crossharbor Line to Stronghold International. However, due to the lower turning capacity this would provide, along with the challenges to retrofit the station to have KMAT gatelines, the proposal was turned down. However, in 2017 a special shuttle service of the stronghold mainline was introduced, which was free and would shuttle passengers between Stronghold Central and Woodbine, which had seen service cuts since the Crossharbor Line started serving the station.