The Northport Branch was a spur off the

Port Jefferson Branch The Port Jefferson Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch splits from the Main Line just east of Hicksville and runs northeast and east to Port Jefferson. Sever ...

of the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...

, running from between Greenlawn and Northport stations to directly within Northport Village. Northport became the

terminus Terminus may refer to: * Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination * Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination Geography *Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...

of an extension of the

Hicksville and Syosset Railroad Hicksville may refer to: Places *Hicksville, Arkansas *Hicksville, Kentucky, in Graves County *Hicksville, New York **Hicksville station, Long Island Rail Road station in Hicksville, New York *Hicksville, Ohio *Hicksville, Virginia *"Hicksville", ea ...

line (later the

Hicksville and Cold Spring Branch Railroad The Port Jefferson Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch splits from the Main Line just east of Hicksville and runs northeast and east to Port Jefferson. Se ...

), after some arguments with Oliver Charlick over the locations of stations in

Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Huntington, in Suffolk County, on the North Shore of Long Island in New York. As of the 2010 United States census, the CDP population was 5,070. History Cold Spri ...

, and Huntington led to the line bypassing both towns, the latter of them two miles to the south, though a station was built for both of them. The line was extended from Syosset past Huntington to Northport in 1868, and in 1873 the

Smithtown and Port Jefferson Railroad The Port Jefferson Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch splits from the Main Line just east of Hicksville and runs northeast and east to Port Jefferson. Sev ...

opened from a mile south of Northport to

Port Jefferson Port Jefferson (informally known as "Port Jeff") is an incorporated village in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. Officially known as the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson, the population ...

, turning the old line into Northport into the Northport Branch, the result of another argument between Charlick and Northport. Old Northport Station was abandoned in 1899, but the Northport Branch was used as a freight line throughout much of the 20th century. Between the 1950s and early-1980s, the

New York State Department of Transportation The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports, waterways and aviation facilities in ...

wanted to use part of the branch for construction of the Babylon-Northport Expressway. Opponents of the expressway assumed that the NYSDOT was using the expressway as a plot against the railroad. In reality, the industries that previously used the line no longer found it useful, and it was abandoned in 1978, and dismantled in 1985. In 2007, a segment of the former

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

was preserved as the Northport Rail Trail. The size of the

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

was doubled in 2009 with the addition of of parkland from an adjacent undeveloped parcel that had been acquired by New York State by

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

for the Babylon-Northport Expressway.

Stations

References

{{Long Island Rail Road Long Island Rail Road branches Transportation in Suffolk County, New York Huntington, New York Northport, New York Railway lines opened in 1868 Railway lines closed in 1978