Editing Branch line (section)

===North America===
[[File:NS Mt Holly Branch Line at Mt Laurel.jpg|thumb|[[Conrail Shared Assets Operations]]' 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, New Jersey|Mount Laurel]], [[Hainesport Township, New Jersey|Hainesport]], and [[Mount Holly, New Jersey]], respectively. The [[River Line (NJ Transit)|nearest main line railroad]] is roughly {{convert|6|mi|km|spell=in}} 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 railroad]]s 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====
{{See also|Rail transport in Canada}}

Much of Canada's branch line history relates to large rail transport conglomerates (such as the [[Grand Trunk Railway|Grand Trunk]], [[Canadian National Railway|Canadian National]], or [[Canadian Pacific Railway|Canadian Pacific]]) which would acquire formerly independent [[short line railway]]s 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,<ref name=wilson-1973>{{cite journal |last=Wilson |first=W. A. "Dale" |date=December 1973 |title=Algoma Eastern: The Line to Little Current |journal=[[Canadian Rail]] |volume=263 |publisher=[[Canadian Railroad Historical Association]] |url=https://www.exporail.org/can_rail/Canadian%20Rail_no263_1973.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729005840/https://www.exporail.org/can_rail/Canadian%20Rail_no263_1973.pdf |archive-date=29 July 2020 |pages=350–379}}</ref>{{rp|373}} 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.<ref name=wilson-1973 />{{rp|374}}

The ''National Transportation Act'' of 1967 provided government subsidies for branch lines.<ref name=earl-prentice>{{cite web |last1=Earl |first1=Paul D. |last2=Prentice |first2=Barry E. |date=2016 |title=Western Grain Exceptionalism: Transportation Policy Change Since 1968 |publisher=Canadian Transport Research Forum |url=https://ctrf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/CTRF2016EarlPrenticeAgricultureTransportation.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|2}} 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 [[Canadian Prairies|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.<ref name=earl-prentice />{{rp|2}} 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.<ref name=mason>{{cite journal |last=Mason |first=Greg |date=Spring 1978 |title=The Grain Handling and Transportation Commission |journal=Canadian Public Policy |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |volume=4 |number=2 |pages=235–245 |doi=10.2307/3549347 |jstor=3549347 |url=https://gregorymason.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/The-Grain-Handliong-and-Transportation-Commission.pdf}}</ref> 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 {{convert|9300|km|mi}} of Prairie branch lines were abandoned or had a discontinuance of service.<ref name="topia-whistle">{{cite journal |last=Barney |first=Darin |date=10 April 2018 |title=To Hear the Whistle Blow: Technology and Politics on the Battle River Branch Line |url=https://darinbarneyresearch.mcgill.ca/Work/Topia_Whistle.PDF |journal=TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies |volume=25 |access-date=9 May 2021 |archive-date=25 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825030541/https://darinbarneyresearch.mcgill.ca/Work/Topia_Whistle.PDF |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{rp|10}}

[[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.<ref>Hanna, David Blyth, Macmillan 1924</ref><ref>Dow, Andrew, ''Dow's Dictionary of Railway Quotations'', JHU Press 2006.</ref>

====United States====
{{See also|Rail transportation in the 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 (NJT station)|Princeton Junction]] northwest to [[Princeton (NJT station)|Princeton]] with no intermediate stops. Also known as the "Dinky Line",<ref>{{cite book | last = Rosenbaum | first = Joel | author2 = Tom Gallo | title = NJ Transit Rail Operations | publisher = Railpace Newsmagazine | year = 1997 | url = http://www.railpace.com/store/njt_book.htm | access-date = 20 July 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111003090513/http://www.railpace.com/store/njt_book.htm | archive-date = 3 October 2011 | url-status = dead }}</ref> at {{convert|2.9|mi|km|abbr=on}} it is the shortest scheduled commuter rail line in the United States.<ref>{{citation | title = Picks and Pans Review: Princeton Junction & Back | magazine = [[People (magazine)|People]] |volume=11 |issue=13 | date = 2 April 1979 | url = http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20073295,00.html | access-date =15 April 2012 }}</ref><ref name = NJTweighsin>{{cite web | last = Schultz | first = Bonnie | title = Arts and Transit: NJ Transit Weighs In | publisher = AllPrinceton.com | date = June 2011 | url = http://allprinceton.com/content/arts-and-transit-nj-transit-weighs | access-date = 15 April 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121018222612/http://allprinceton.com/content/arts-and-transit-nj-transit-weighs | archive-date = 18 October 2012 | url-status = dead }}</ref> The run takes 4 minutes, 47 seconds.<ref name = shorter>{{cite news | last = Frassinelli | first = Mike | title = Historic Princeton 'Dinky' line train station to move for arts center | newspaper = The Star-Ledger | date = 25 June 2013 | url = http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/historic_princeton_dinky_line_train_station_to_move_for_arts_center.html | access-date = 26 June 2013 }}</ref>

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".