37-604: The Dunstable Branch Lines were railway branch lines that joined the English town of Dunstable to the main lines at Leighton Buzzard and Welwyn . The two lines were under separate ownership and joined just east of the Dunstable North station. The line from Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable North was authorised by the Dunstable and London and Birmingham Railway Act 1845 ( 8 & 9 Vict. c. xxxvii), and built by
74-557: A guided busway was constructed on the old trackbed , the Luton to Dunstable Busway , which opened in 2013. Buses run on this route as far as Dunstable Town and then divert via the old cement works. The Lea Valley Walk follows the line between Luton Hoo and Harpenden. East of Wheathampstead , heading towards Welwyn Garden City , the trackbed was converted to a path called the Ayot Greenway . Branch line A branch line
111-510: A common sight along railroads in industrial and rural cities alike. As automobile and roadway technology improved throughout the early and mid-20th century, most low volume industry spurs were abandoned in favor of the greater flexibility and economic savings of trucking. Today, railroads remain the most economical way to ship large quantities of material, a fact that is reflected in industrial spurs. Most modern day spurs serve very large industries that require hundreds, if not thousands, of carloads
148-464: A mainline, they tend to have lower maintenance and signaling (train control) standards. Before the rise of the long-distance trucking in the early 1930s, railroads were the primary means of transportation around the world. Industries of the era were commonly built along railroad lines specifically to allow for easy access to shipping. Short (under a mile, oftentimes only several hundred yards) industrial spurs with very small (under ten car) capacities were
185-823: A section of the West Rail line . Discontinued services include the Sha Tau Kok Railway and the Wo Hop Shek Branch . A spur line to Siu Sai Wan has been proposed. Delhi 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 on 8 January 2010 with Anand Vihar as its terminal with six stations. It
222-531: 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 term "grain-dependent branch lines" began being used as early as 1978 to refer to the special case of these branch lines in agricultural areas whose viability depended on the economics of grain transport. The Western Grain Transportation Act of 1983 addressed this case specifically, but
259-466: A year. 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 . 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
296-569: Is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line . A very short branch line may be called a spur line . Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located on a main line. Branch lines may also connect two or more main lines. An industrial spur is a type of secondary track used by railroads to allow customers at a location to load and unload railcars without interfering with other railroad operations. Industrial spurs can vary greatly in length and railcar capacity depending on
333-707: Is now one of the largest towns in the South East without a railway connection. Stanbridgeford railway station ( 51°53′50.00″N 0°35′29.00″W / 51.8972222°N 0.5913889°W / 51.8972222; -0.5913889 ( Stanbridgeford railway station ) ) was close to the village of Stanbridge . Dunstable North railway station was originally the terminus of the line from Leighton Buzzard. Dunstable Town railway station ( 51°53′12″N 0°30′38″W / 51.8866°N 0.5106°W / 51.8866; -0.5106 ( Dunstable Town railway station ) ) (originally Dunstable Church Street)
370-567: 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 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometres) long and the train takes around two and a half minutes to complete its journey. 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
407-516: Is unique in having two railway stations (Chiltern Green and Luton Hoo) neither of which, after 1 December 1891, were named after the village they served. The two lines ran side by side at this point: the Midland into Luton Midland Road and the GNR from Hatfield into Luton Bute Street . The station closed in 1952 due to competition from Luton Hoo station, only 600 yards (500 m) away. Ironically,
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#1732773070638444-532: 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
481-753: 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". In Chile, there are a lot of branch lines on its main line, of only a few remain operational. Most only operating in turistic services (like the Antilhue-Valdivia branch line), others have been taken over by other railways (like
518-1048: 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. The National Transportation Act of 1967 provided government subsidies for branch lines. Western railway development in Canada worked in concert with land settlement and cultivation, as pioneers were settled near railway lines, often on land
555-594: The London and North Western Railway . This opened in 1848. The Luton, Dunstable and Welwyn Junction Railway planned a connecting line from the Great Northern Railway at Welwyn. The line between Dunstable and Luton opened in 1858. The company then amalgamated with the Hertford and Welwyn Junction Railway to form the Hertford, Luton and Dunstable Railway . The track to Welwyn was completed in 1860 and
592-788: 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. 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
629-704: 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 Tsim Sha Tsui Extension [ yue ] 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
666-405: The branch line between Welwyn Garden City and Leighton Buzzard , which Luton Hoo was on, closed in 1965, meaning that New Mill End was no longer served by a local railway station. The station buildings survive to this day as a private home. The platform on the station building side partly survives but is overgrown and difficult to see when passing in a train. The other platform was removed when
703-665: The list of New Zealand railway lines . Chiltern Green railway station Chiltern Green railway station was built by the Midland Railway in 1868 on its extension to St. Pancras . The station was located in New Mill End but took its name from the small hamlet of Chiltern Green about a mile away. Adjacent to it was the GNR station of Luton Hoo also located in New Mill End. The small hamlet of New Mill End
740-695: 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. 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
777-623: 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 2.9 mi (4.7 km) 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
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#1732773070638814-469: 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. Much of Canada's branch line history relates to large rail transport conglomerates (such as
851-569: 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. 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
888-546: 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
925-619: The line was taken over by the Great Northern in the following year. It became part of the London and North Eastern Railway from 1923 until British Railways was formed in 1948. Passenger services were withdrawn in 1965 under the Beeching Axe , and the track between Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard was removed. The line between Dunstable and the Midland Main Line at Luton remained open for freight until 1990. Dunstable
962-572: 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
999-507: The requirements of the customer the spur is serving. In heavily industrialized areas, it is not uncommon for one industrial spur to have multiple sidings to several different customers. Typically, spurs are serviced by local trains responsible for collecting small numbers of railcars and delivering them to a larger yard, where these railcars are sorted and dispatched in larger trains with other cars destined to similar locations. Because industrial spurs generally have less capacity and traffic than
1036-458: The site of the station and on the line in the immediate area. Wheathampstead railway station ( 51°48′55″N 0°17′31″W / 51.81531°N 0.29202°W / 51.81531; -0.29202 ( Wheathampstead railway station ) ) served Wheathampstead . Ayot railway station ( 51°48′54″N 0°13′46″W / 51.81503°N 0.22935°W / 51.81503; -0.22935 ( Ayot railway station ) ) served
1073-720: The temporary platforms were closed. The present station was opened in 1926. The last passenger train, packed with enthusiasts, was hauled by Brush Type 2 D5589 on 24 April 1965. A goods service serving the Bedford Trucks factory in Dunstable continued until well into the 1980s. Within Leighton Buzzard, the line is now used as a footpath and cycleway which crosses the Grand Union Canal and River Ouzel . Between Leighton Buzzard and Stanbridgeford, it
1110-409: The village of Ayot St Peter . It opened as Ayott St Peters on 2 July 1877, and was named Ayott from 1 April 1878 until October 1878. The station was destroyed by fire in 1948 and never rebuilt. It closed on 26 July 1948. Trains initially ran to temporary wooden platforms at Welwyn (on the site of the present Welwyn Garden City railway station ). From 1 September 1860 trains ran on to Hatfield , and
1147-504: 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. 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
Dunstable Branch Lines - Misplaced Pages Continue
1184-460: Was one of two stations serving the town of Harpenden , the other station which remains open being Harpenden Central . Originally named Harpenden, the East suffix was added in 1950 to distinguish it from the Midland Railway station. The line was single track with a crossing loop . The station opened in 1860 and closed in 1965. Since closure it has been demolished and housing has been built both on
1221-585: Was opened in 1860 and originally called New Mill End. The name changed to Luton Hoo in 1891 and the station closed in 1965. It served Luton Hoo house and the village of New Mill End . It was close to the Midland Railway station of Chiltern Green and the GNR and Midland lines took a parallel course from Luton. The station building and platform still exist, sited next to a sewage works. Harpenden East ( 51°49′18.5″N 0°20′26.4″W / 51.821806°N 0.340667°W / 51.821806; -0.340667 ( Harpenden East railway station ) )
1258-502: 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 9,300 kilometres (5,800 mi) of Prairie branch lines were abandoned or had a discontinuance of service. David Blyth Hanna ,
1295-522: Was the first to be built in Luton. It was opened in 1858. It was valuable to Luton people not only for passengers but also facilitating the London market for the town's trade in plaited straw goods. The station closed in 1965. Luton Hoo railway station ( 51°50′57″N 0°22′32.7″W / 51.84917°N 0.375750°W / 51.84917; -0.375750 ( Luton Hoo railway station ) )
1332-534: Was the terminus station on the spur off the Great Northern Railway from Hatfield . It served the town of Dunstable until closure in 1965. The station was immortalised in 1964 in the song " Slow Train " by Flanders and Swann . The station was on Station Road. Luton Bute Street railway station ( 51°52′54″N 0°24′49″W / 51.88173°N 0.41372°W / 51.88173; -0.41372 ( Luton Bute Street railway station ) )
1369-562: Was used to build part of the A505 Leighton-Linslade Southern Bypass. National Cycle Route 6 follows the line between Stanbridgeford and Dunstable, including Sewell Cutting , which is managed as a nature reserve by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire . The line between Dunstable and Luton has never been legally decommissioned. The track has been removed and
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