Europe There is an international branch line between Italy and Vatican: the 300-metre
Vatican Railway, connecting from the
Pisa-Rome railway mainline at
Roma San Pietro railway station, to
Vatican City station.
United Kingdom Many British railway branch lines were closed as a result of the "
Beeching cuts" in the 1960s, although some have been re-opened as
heritage railways. The smallest branch line that is still in operation in the UK is the
Stourbridge Town Branch Line from
Stourbridge Junction going to
Stourbridge Town. Operating on a single track, the journey is long.
North America ' Hainesport Industrial Track is a prime example of a freight branch line. This line sees one short freight train a day primarily to serve a paper mill, industrial park, and lumber yard in
Mount Laurel,
Hainesport, and
Mount Holly, New Jersey, respectively. The
nearest main line railroad is roughly from where this photograph was taken. In North America, little-used branch lines are often sold by large railroads to become new
common carrier short-line railroads of their own. Throughout the United States and Canada, branch lines link smaller towns too distant from the main line to be served efficiently, or to serve a certain industrial site such as a
power station either because of a location away from the main line or to reduce congestion. They were typically built to lower standards, using lighter rail and shallow roadbeds when compared to main lines.
Canada Much of Canada's branch line history relates to large rail transport conglomerates (such as the
Grand Trunk,
Canadian National, or
Canadian Pacific) which would acquire formerly independent
short line railways for use as branch lines, with the short line often continuing to exist as a subsidiary. For example, when the Canadian Pacific acquired the
Algoma Eastern Railway (a short line) in 1930, it soon after abandoned much of the Algoma Eastern mainline, but retained sections close to Algoma Eastern–Canadian Pacific junctions as short branch lines or spurs. Western railway development in Canada worked in concert with land settlement and cultivation, as pioneers were settled near railway lines, often on land the railways had owned. However, by the mid-20th century, railways began neglecting lines in western agricultural regions. This was historically driven by factors such as the
Crow Rate, which regulated the price railways could charge for shipping grain. Railways had little incentive to invest in rural
Prairie branch lines, but were legally unable to abandon them under the
National Transportation Act, which also did not provide a subsidy for grain transport, and instead allowed railways to absorb branch line subsidies freely without making effort to improve the profitability of the lines. The
Western Grain Transportation Act of 1983 addressed this case specifically, but was repealed in 1994 in the wake of the
North American Free Trade Agreement and budget-balancing initiatives in favour of a one-time payout by the federal government directly to farmers, to arrange transport of grain themselves. From the mid-1970s to the late 2010s, more than of Prairie branch lines were abandoned or had a discontinuance of service.
David Blyth Hanna, the first president of the
Canadian National Railway, said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are even essential to make main lines pay.
United States In the United States, abandonment of unproductive branch lines was a byproduct of deregulation of the rail industry through the
Staggers Act. The
Princeton Branch is a
commuter rail line and service owned and operated by
New Jersey Transit (NJT) in the U.S. state of
New Jersey. The line is a short branch of the
Northeast Corridor Line, running from
Princeton Junction northwest to
Princeton with no intermediate stops. Also known as the "Dinky Line", at it is the shortest scheduled commuter rail line in the United States. The run takes 4 minutes, 47 seconds. Other than the Princeton Line, other surviving branch lines include the
Gladstone Branch in New Jersey; as well as the
New Canaan Branch,
Danbury Branch, and
Waterbury Branch in
Connecticut. The
Long Island Rail Road also refers to its services as "branches".
South America Chile In Chile, there are many branch lines on its main line, but only a few remain operational. Most only operating in touristic services (like the Antilhue-Valdivia branch line), others have been taken over by other railways (like the San Rosendo-Talcahuano branch line, which has been taken over by
Biotrén and the Laja-Talcahuano train service) however, there is one branch line that still remains as fully operative. The Talca-Constitución branch line, which uses trains with bus motors.
Asia Hong Kong Two extensions to the
MTR rapid transit network were built as branches of existing lines: the
Lok Ma Chau Spur Line to
Lok Ma Chau station, which opened in 2007; and the
South Tseung Kwan O Spur Line to
LOHAS Park station, opened in 2009. Earlier, a spur line was built in 1985 on the
East Rail line to serve
Racecourse station, bypassing
Fo Tan station. Also, the was built in 2004 on the
East Rail line to serve
East Tsim Sha Tsui station. However, after the
Kowloon Southern Link was completed in 2009, this spur line turns into a section of the
West Rail line (now
Tuen Ma line). Discontinued services include the
Sha Tau Kok Railway and the
Wo Hop Shek Branch.
India On the
Delhi Metro, the
Blue Line has a Branch Line with 8 Stations, linking
Yamuna Bank to
Ghaziabad via
Anand Vihar ISBT and terminating at Vaishali. The first section of the Branch opened in 2010 with
Anand Vihar as its terminal with six stations. It was further extended to
Vaishali in 2011. The line is planned to be extended from Vaishali to
Mohan Nagar via Sahibabad Station to link with the main line.
Singapore The
East West Line of the
MRT system in Singapore has a two-station branch to
Changi Airport. The first station,
Expo, opened in 2001. It was extended to
Changi Airport station the next year. From 1990 to 1996, the section of the
North South Line between
Jurong East and
Choa Chu Kang stations was operated as a separate line, known as the
Branch line. It was merged into the North–South Line with the opening of the Woodlands Extension in 1996. The future
Jurong Region Line and
Cross Island Line will also have branch lines.
Thailand There are two notable spur lines within the
various rapid transit systems in Bangkok, of which one is under construction and one has been tendered. The
MRT Pink Line will have a spur line reaching into "
Impact, Muang Thong Thani", a commercial complex. This spur line, known as the Mueang Thong Thani Line, or the Impact Link, is currently under a
soft launch, and is accessible via the
Muang Thong Thani station. The
SRT Light Red Line will have a branch line heading towards
Siriraj Hospital and the adjacent
MRT Station. This branch line has been
tendered, and will be constructed along with the main line, which will go to
Salaya and possibly beyond.
Oceania New Zealand New Zealand once had a very extensive network of branch lines, especially in the
South Island regions of
Canterbury,
Otago, and
Southland. Many were built in the late 19th century to open up inland regions for farming and other economic activities. The branches in the South Island regions were often general-purpose lines that carried predominantly agricultural traffic, but lines elsewhere were often built to serve a specific resource: on the
West Coast, an extensive network of branch lines was built in rugged terrain to serve coal mines, while in the central
North Island and the
Bay of Plenty Region, lines were built inland to provide rail access to large logging operations. Today, many of the branch lines have been closed, including almost all of the general-purpose country lines. Those that remain serve ports or
industries far from main lines such as coal mines, logging operations, large dairying factories, and
steelworks. In
Auckland and
Wellington, two branch lines in each city exist solely for commuter passenger trains. For more, see the
list of New Zealand railway lines. ==References==