Northern Branch (Conrail)

Northern Branch
Overview
Termini	Jersey City Northvale (originally to Nyack)
Operation
Opened	1859 (freight) 1859 (passenger service)
Closed	1966 (passenger service)
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) standard gauge

The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Rail Road's Piermont Branch terminus in Piermont, New York to Erie's Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City. The line was then extended to Nyack, New York in 1870 and provided passenger service until 1966. Ownership of the line passed into the hands of Conrail upon the latter's formation in 1976.

It survives as two separate but connected pieces of railroad. The Northern Running Track is an approximately two-mile-long freight railroad line in Hudson County, New Jersey. It runs from the Passaic and Harsimus Line at Marion Junction in western Jersey City via a short connection known as the Marion Running Track north to the North Bergen Yard and the CSX Transportation (CSX) Rivers Subdivision, At its southern end the running track provides a connection to Norfolk Southern Railway's Croxton Yard and junctions with the National Docks Secondary. North of the rail yard the Northern Branch (which was part of Conrail until 1998) diverges from the CSX River Subdivision and continues north to the New York state line as minor spur.