New Canaan Branch  The New Canaan Branch is an 8.2-mile (13 km) long branch line of the Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line that begins from a junction east of downtown Stamford, Connecticut north to New Canaan. It opened in 1868 as the New Canaan Railroad. While most trains operate as local shuttles between Stamford and New Canaan, several weekday trains operate between New Canaan and Grand Central Terminal running along the New Haven main line. The New Canaan Railroad was chartered in May 1866 as a short branch of the New York and New Haven Railroad. It opened July 4, 1868 when a train ran from Stamford to New Canaan. Within a year of the opening of operations a branch from the NY&NH main line south in Stamford to the pier at the Pine Island Steamboat Landing was opened to allow passengers and freight to switch to steamboats running on Long Island Sound. Despite such attempts to increase revenue on January 1, 1879, the company went bankrupt, and it was taken over in foreclosure in 1883 by the Stamford and New Canaan Railroad, which incorporated in 1882. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the line on October 1, 1884, and on October 1, 1890, it was merged into the NYNH&H. On November 1, 1907, the use of 500-volt DC overhead catenary was discontinued. In 1908, it was replaced 11,000 volt AC operation. Costs were reduced by supplying the line from the Cos Cob station instead of by independent power. The NYNH&H was merged into Penn Central in 1969. On January 1, 1971, the State of Connecticut leased operation of passenger service along the New Canaan Branch to Penn Central for $100,000 per year. On April 10, 1972, Penn Central briefly suspended off-peak service on the branch to install high-level platforms at stations. In 1983, the Metro-North Commuter Railroad took over the operation of trains on the branch. Like the New Haven mainline from Mt. Vernon, New York to New Haven, Connecticut, the entire branch is electrified with overhead catenary, although it is currently the only electrified branch. Between Mt. Vernon and Grand Central, DC third rail is used, due to the lack of catenary between the two points. Beginning in March 2011, the newly delivered Kawasaki M8 railcars started running in revenue service along the branch, and eventually took over operation from the older Budd M2 railcars. Except for the main-line portion of the route from Grand Central to Stamford and the storage tracks at , the branch is entirely single-tracked.