The East Junction Branch is a railroad line owned and operated by the Providence and Worcester Railroad in the U.S. state of Rhode Island and by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Massachusetts. The line runs from the P&W's East Providence Branch in East Providence, Rhode Island northeast to Amtrak's Shore Line (Northeast Corridor) at East Junction in Attleboro, Massachusetts along a former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad line. In Massachusetts, CSX Transportation operates local freight service via trackage rights, which it also has on the Shore Line north towards Boston. The P&W has overhead trackage rights in Massachusetts over the East Junction Branch, Shore Line, and CSX's Middleboro Subdivision, New Bedford Subdivision, and Fall River Subdivision to the state line in Fall River, to reach its line to Newport, Rhode Island.
History
The East Junction Branch is part of the original Boston and Providence Rail Road, opened in 1835. It became a branch in 1847 with the opening of the new line from East Junction to Providence. The B&P was leased by the Old Colony Railroad in 1888, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the Old Colony in 1893. It remained a New Haven line until 1969, when the New Haven was merged into Penn Central Transportation. The MBTA acquired the piece in Massachusetts on January 27, 1973, despite it not seeing any passenger service, and the P&W later acquired the Rhode Island portion from Conrail, which had taken over Penn Central's lines in 1976.