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Track Work On Danbury Branch Prompts Substitute Bus Service

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- As work continues on three grade crossings, Metro-North Railroad will be running buses instead of some trains on the Danbury Branch for the next two weeks. 

Metro-North Railroad will run buses instead of some trains along the Danbury Branch for the next two weekends and for the next two weeks.

Metro-North Railroad will run buses instead of some trains along the Danbury Branch for the next two weekends and for the next two weeks.

Photo Credit: Karen Tensa

On the weekends of Aug. 15-17 and Aug. 22-24, all trains will be replaced by buses, beginning at 9 p.m. Friday and continuing through midnight Sunday.

For more information on the weekend train and bus schedules, visit this website

Buses will also replace all off-peak and reverse trains from Monday, Aug. 18, to Friday, Aug. 22, and from Monday, Aug. 25, to Thursday, Aug. 28. Trains will resume Friday, Aug. 29. 

For more information on the weekday train and bus schedules, visit this website

Buses will make all stops from Danbury to Bethel, West Redding, Branchville, Cannondale, Wilton, Merritt 7 and South Norwalk.

The construction work will be done at the two crossings at Wilton Station and at Portland Avenue in the Branchville section of Ridgefield, according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

Crews will be lifting out the tracks, cleaning the crossing foundations and bolstering the ballast shoulders of the crossings. The work will be paid for by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, which owns the New Haven Line, at a cost of $2 million.

In November, the DOT and Metro-North completed a new signal system project along the entire Danbury Branch. The service was expanded along the Danbury Branch as a result of the project upgrade and construction of several portions of parallel track, or sidings, which allow more than one train to operate along the corridor at a time.

But since then, maintenance and reliability issues have been reported at some of the street-level crossings, including crossing gates that closed when no train was approaching.

Work has been underway since March along the Danbury Branch to repair the problem. 

For months, trains operated on a “stop and warn” system, requiring the train to stop before each crossing and warn motorists that a train is coming through. This practice reduced train speeds and affected service.

For more information, visit the Metro-North website

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