Northern City Line

Northern City Line
A Class 313 train departing Moorgate.
Overview
Type	Commuter rail, Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Greater London
Termini	Finsbury Park London Moorgate
Stations	6
Operation
Opened	1904
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Great Northern
Depot(s)	Hornsey
Rolling stock	Class 313
Technical
Number of tracks	Two
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Loading gauge	W6
Electrification	25 kV 50hz AC OHLE (Drayton Park and north) 750 V DC third rail (Drayton Park and south)

The Northern City Line is a branch railway in England, which runs from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London. It is part of the Great Northern Route services and operates as the south-eastern branch of the East Coast Main Line (ECML). It is underground from Moorgate to Drayton Park in Highbury from which point it runs in a cutting until joining the ECML south of Finsbury Park. Its stations span northern inner districts of Greater London to the City of London, the UK's main financial centre. Since December 2015 the service timetable has been extended to run into the late evenings and at weekends, meeting a new franchise commitment for a minimum of 6 trains per hour until 23:59 on weekdays and 4 trains per hour at weekends.

The official name for this line is the Moorgate Line, however it is rarely referred to as this because of the confusion with another line with the same name which runs between Kentish Town and Farringdon (and until recently Moorgate surface level station) on the London Midland Region. The Northern City Line's name is derived from the fact that it was formerly part of London Transport's Underground network where it was described or managed as part of both the Metropolitan and Northern lines (sometimes as the "Highbury Branch"), although never connected to either. Built as an isolated route with a northern terminus at Finsbury Park, reconstruction connected it to the British Rail network in 1976 and began its modern service pattern. It is now owned by Network Rail and served by commuter trains operated by Great Northern from Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City, Hertford North and Letchworth Garden City.