Oak Point Link

The Oak Point Link is a 1.9-mile (3.1 km) long railroad line in the Bronx, New York City, United States, along the east bank of the Harlem River. It connects the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line (on the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad section) with the Harlem River Intermodal Yard and the CSX Transportation Oak Point Yard at the north end of the Hell Gate Bridge.

The line, constructed and owned by the State of New York, opened in 1998 to allow better freight rail access to the city by eliminating the need to use the Port Morris Branch, a more circuitous route that crossed busy commuter lines and whose tight turns (at Mott Haven and Melrose) limited the length of freight cars. It was funded in part by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The new line was built with loading gauge clearances high enough for trailer-on-flat car (TOFC) intermodal freight transport service, but is not high enough for double stack container service, due to limits imposed by city bridges crossing over the line and the high tides on the Harlem River. Construction of the line began in 1983 and cost $187 million to complete. Including that sum, more than $375 million of public money has been spent to upgrade track to TOFC clearance between Selkirk Yard near Albany and Fresh Pond Junction yard on Long Island.</ref>

The line also gives Canadian Pacific Railway's subsidiary Delaware and Hudson Railway access to New York City. The access was mandated by the Surface Transportation Board to give competition to CSX's post-Conrail breakup monopoly on New York City and encourage freight in the area to use rail. CP uses trackage rights over CSX and Metro-North from Schenectady south along the east side of the Hudson River to the connection. The first train to use it ran on October 12, 1998, according to The New York Times.

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