New Haven Line

The New Haven Line is a 72.7 mi (117.0 km) 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 carries 125,000 passengers every weekday and 39 million passengers a year. The busiest intermediate station is Stamford, 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 (CTDOT). 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.

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 (Conrail) 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.