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The Cannondale Metro-North Railroad station serves residents of the Cannondale area of Wilton, Connecticut via the Danbury Branch of the New Haven Line.

The station is 50.2 miles to Grand Central Terminal and the average travel time from there is 1 hour, 24 minutes regardless of through trains or transfers at Stamford or South Norwalk.

The station has 140 parking spaces, all owned by the state.

Platform and track configuration

This station has one two-car-long high-level side platform to the west of the track. The Danbury Branch has one track at this location.

History

The Danbury and Norwalk Railroad opened the line in late February 1852, with the official opening on March 1. Charles Cannon of Cannondale was the subcontractor who built the route through Wilton. The train cost passengers 30 cents to go to South Norwalk and 50 cents to Danbury at a time when the day's wages of a laborer might not be a dollar. Two trains made the trip up and down the line each day. In the first few years, a freshet and a flood from the Norwalk River twice shut down the line for repairs. The station made travel suddenly much quicker than stagecoach transportation. After a few years, when speeds picked up a bit on the line, it took 28 minutes to reach South Norwalk.

In its early years, the railroad line had no more than 390 passengers a day using the service in its early years, and an average of 34 passengers per train, L. Peter Cornwall, a railroad historian, estimated that perhaps no more than a dozen people used the train from Cannondale in its early years. Although there may only have been a "flag stop" (in which passengers or railroad employees raised a flag if they needed the train to stop), by 1856 it was a regular stopping point for all trains, and the stop was originally called "Cannon's". In the early 1870s the station was no longer listed and was probably a flag stop. In the 1890s it was again listed as a station, now called "Cannon". Just before World War I, the staton name was changed to "Cannondale".

Connections

• Norwalk Transit District: Route 7 Link
• Housatonic Area Regional Transit; L

See also

• Connecticut Rail Commuter Council is the official state advocate for commuters and brings station problems to the attention of officials.

Notes

1. "Task 2: Technical Memorandum parking Inventory and Utilization: Final Report" submitted by Urbitran Associates Inc. to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, "Table 1: New haven Line Parking Capacity and Utilization", page 6, July 2003
2. ^ Cornwall, L. Peter, "The Danbury & Norwalk Railroad and its impact on Cannondale", pp 105–132, published in Cannondale: A Connecticut Neighborhood (no overall editor named), published by the Wilton Historical Society, 1987

Pictures

• Station house & tracks from south end of platform Station house & tracks from south end of platform
• South end of platform from the station house. South end of platform from the station house.
• Trackside view station house and platform Trackside view station house and platform
• Tables between the station house and the tracks Tables between the station house and the tracks

External links

• Metro-North Railroad - Cannondale
• Fix My Station Photo Campaign - Cannondale
• Connecticut Department of Transportation, "Condition Inspection Cannondale Station" report, August 2002

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• Northeastern United States railway station stubs
• Connecticut building and structure stubs
• Connecticut transportation stubs
• Stations along New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad lines
• Metro-North Railroad stations
• Wilton, Connecticut
• Transportation in Fairfield County, Connecticut