New Haven Line
The New Haven Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Metro-North Railroad in the U.S. states of New York and Connecticut. Running from New Haven, Connecticut, to New York City, the New Haven Line joins the Harlem Line in Mount Vernon, New York, and continues south to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The New Haven Line carried 32.07 million passengers in 2024. The busiest intermediate station is, with 8.4 million passengers, or 21% of the line's ridership.
The 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 timetables and system maps, and stations on the line have red trim. The red color-coding is a nod to the red paint used in the New Haven's 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 CTDOT.
The New Haven Line runs on a section of the Northeast Corridor, which is the busiest rail line in the United States. Amtrak's Northeast Regional and Acela use the line between New Rochelle, New York, and New Haven, and five New Haven Line stations are shared with Amtrak. Local freight service is provided on the line in Connecticut by CSX Transportation, and the Providence and Worcester Railroad operates unit trains of stone along the line.
History
Before Metro-North
The rail line from New York to New Haven was completed by 1849, and commuters started using the trains soon afterward. The line was part of the New York and New Haven Railroad — after 1872, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad — which had trackage rights over the New York Central Railroad's New York and Harlem Railroad into Grand Central.The Great Blizzard of 1888 blocked the rail line in Westport, between the Saugatuck and Green's Farms stations. It took eight days to restore service, as snow was dug out by hand.
The line was grade separated into a cut in Mount Vernon in 1893 as a result of multiple collisions between trains and horsecars.
As part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal in the early 1900s, all of New York Central's lines that ran into the terminal were electrified. Third rail was installed on the Hudson and Harlem Divisions, while the New Haven Division received overhead wires on the segments that were not shared with the Harlem and Hudson Division. Steam locomotives on the New Haven Division were replaced with electric locomotives, and later electric multiple units. New Haven Division electric trains started running to Grand Central in October 1907. The replacement of the Housatonic River Railroad Bridge that year completed quadruple-tracking of the line from Woodlawn Junction to New Haven.
The New Haven was merged into Penn Central in 1969. On November 25, 1969, Penn Central, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the states of New York and Connecticut agreed that New York would buy its section of the line and Connecticut would lease its section as far as New Haven. The acquisition took place on January 1, 1971, and included the three branches. After Penn Central went bankrupt, the Consolidated Rail Corporation took over operations in 1976. The MTA took over operations in 1983, and merged Conrail's former commuter rail lines in the New York area into Metro-North. The MTA undertook to rebuild the railroad, upgrading signals, tracks, ties, roadbeds, and rolling stock.
New and closed infrastructure
Over the years, some stations have been abandoned or closed, and some characteristics of the line have changed. The Columbus Avenue station in Mount Vernon was closed in the Penn Central era, due to its proximity to Mt. Vernon station and the expense of converting it to high-level platforms. It had previously been a transfer station to the overhead viaduct station of the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway; an impressive ruin remains and is easily visible from passing trains. Other stations abandoned along the mainline include Devon, at the junction of the Waterbury Branch, and Norwalk, replaced by South Norwalk. The changeover from catenary to third rail was moved from Woodlawn to just west of in the early 1990s; this was done to eliminate the cost of maintaining catenary under old bridges in Mount Vernon and to move the changeover point to a section of level track to prevent momentum problems when trains change between catenary and third rail. The catenary poles are still intact as they carry several communications lines. There is an abandoned rail yard just east of Port Chester station.The New Haven's Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad, diverging from the main line below New Rochelle, ran local passenger service to the Harlem River Terminal in the South Bronx until 1931, and has several abandoned stations. It was a major freight route for the New Haven to Queens, where it interchanged with the Long Island Rail Road and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Four new stations are planned along this route as part of Metro-North's Penn Station Access.
As a largely four-track electrified mainline, the New Haven Line is capable of supporting a mix of local and express service, allowing for a higher density of stations than many other commuter rail lines. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were stations in every population center along the line. Some of these were dropped over the years due to low ridership, and no new stations were added to the New Haven Line mainline for over 100 years. opened in December 2011 to support a new commercial development. After a decade-long process choosing between locations in West Haven and Orange, West Haven station opened in August 2013, filling the longest gap on the line. Currently, a study is being undertaken to detail the costs and benefits of implementing more frequent service on the line. The line would have to be upgraded to accommodate additional service.
On July 11, 2022, six new express trains were added to the New Haven Line, only stopping at New Haven, Bridgeport, and Stamford, and Grand Central. These trains, of which three would run in the morning, and three would run in the evening, would operate to Grand Central in as little as 99 minutes.
Incidents and accidents
Fatal accidents
The Norwalk rail accident occurred at the Norwalk River bridge in Norwalk, Connecticut, on May 6, 1853, killing 48 people. Another occurred in Westport, Connecticut, in 1895, and another in that town on October 3, 1912. Another fatality occurred in August 1969 on the New Canaan Branch, which prompted the line's then-operator, Penn Central, to stop operating northbound and southbound trains simultaneously on the branch. There was also a collision between two trains in Mount Vernon in 1988, which killed an engineer. In 2012 two people were killed by a train-car collision at an ungated grade crossing on the Danbury Branch in Redding, Connecticut, and in 2013 a track worker was struck and killed in West Haven.Non-fatal incidents
The May 2013 Fairfield train crash resulted in 72 injuries after two trains collided following a derailment near.On September 25, 2013, a Con Edison failure required the use of diesel locomotives and bus service between Mount Vernon and Harrison for 12 days.
Operations
Passenger service
Main Line
New Haven Line mainline trains primarily use electric multiple units consisting of Kawasaki M8 railcars.All New Haven Line electric trains change over between third rail and overhead catenary between Mount Vernon East and Pelham at normal track speed. Inbound trains to Grand Central lower their pantographs in this area, while outbound trains raise them; the third rail shoes stay in the same position both in and out of third rail territory. Both catenary and third rail overlap for a quarter-mile between Mount Vernon East and Pelham to facilitate this changeover. When the line was first electrified in 1907, trains transitioned between third rail and overhead catenary at Woodlawn Heights, approximately southwest of Pelham. This changeover is still needed today, for the New Haven Line and Harlem Line share trackage between Grand Central and Mount Vernon; the two lines split just north of the Harlem Line's Woodlawn station.
Stamford Transportation Center divides the New Haven Line's mainline into an "inner zone" and an "outer zone". Inner zone trains run local, serving all stops between Grand Central and Stamford. Outer zone trains run express between Grand Central and Stamford, making only one intermediate stop at Harlem-125th Street, before running local between Stamford and New Haven.
The entire New Haven Line mainline is grade-separated with no grade crossings, although there are several privately marked-pedestrian crossings in many of the storage yards such as the East Side Yard in Bridgeport.
Branch Lines
Within the Metro-North system, the New Haven Line is the only line with operating branch lines. These three branch lines are the New Canaan Branch, the Danbury Branch, and the Waterbury Branch. The New Canaan Branch is electrified, and uses the same Kawasaki M8 railcars as the main line. The Danbury Branch and Waterbury Branches, on the other hand, use Shoreliner consists powered by diesel locomotives. Some main line trains will occasionally use diesel equipment in revenue runs for positioning or due to equipment shortages.The New Haven Railroad, Metro-North's predecessor, had an extensive branch network in Connecticut, including: a branch off the Danbury Branch at the aptly named Branchville, CT to Ridgefield, CT; another branch off the main line for freight at Bridgeport known as the Berkshire ; and the Maybrook line, which connected the Waterbury Branch with the Danbury Branch, with several branches of its own.
Branch line trains generally operate as their own zone and terminate at a main line station; passengers can then transfer to a train bound for another main line station or Grand Central. The southern terminus for each branch line is Stamford on the New Canaan Branch, South Norwalk on the Danbury Branch, and Bridgeport on the Waterbury Branch. All trains run local on their respective branch lines. During peak hours, however, some trains on the New Canaan and Danbury Branches run limited one-seat service to Grand Central; these trains run express on the main line but still make all stops on their respective branch lines.
Unlike the main line, the New Haven Line branches operate almost entirely at grade, with frequent crossings.