[3] The railroad started as a steam powered line running from a station in Annapolis, on Bladen Street just south of St. John's College,[4] crossing the wide Severn River estuary on a long timber trestle, and on to Clifford on the B&O line, where it used the B&O tracks to terminate at Camden Station in Baltimore.

[6] That process was completed in 1908 and it changed its name to the Maryland Electric Railways Company, providing clean, comfortable, faster, and more frequent service.

[1] At the same time, most of the old Shortline track between Linthicum and Westport was abandoned, except for a section between Baltimore Highlands and the B&O Clifford interchange which was kept to handle freight to and from the B&O.

The "new" (B&O-built) Annapolis Shortline ROW between Clifford and Westport was also retained for freight interchange, though this segment was later abandoned in 1979.

[12] The right-of-way and some equipment were instead bought by the Bondholders Protective Society who then formed the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad Company.

The B&A typically ran 5- and 6-car trains between Baltimore and Glen Burnie, with 3-cars continuing on the additional 20 miles (32 km) to Annapolis.

[16] In 1938 the company began running motor-coaches between Baltimore and Annapolis,[17] and expanded in 1941 with a line serving Fort Meade from both cities.

[16] Following World War II, gasoline and cars came back, highway expansion followed and passenger rail service became unprofitable.

[18] The land ran from Russell Street to just north of the B&O's Curtis Bay Branch and consisted of the line that the B&A had used to access its Baltimore terminal.

[19][20][21] The B&A agreed to sell and clear the land for $450,000 on the condition that they could end passenger rail service because they were running an annual operating deficit of $100,000.

[15] The B&A ended rail passenger service on February 5, 1950, and used the money from the sale of part of the line to purchase 11 more buses (creating a fleet of 42 for the route) and a new diesel electric locomotive.

[31] It ran coal and building supplies to Annapolis until June 1968 when the Severn River Trestle was declared unsafe.

[31][32] It ceased operations across the trestle, but it never requested permission to abandon service there, and the Naval Academy converted their power and heating systems from coal to oil.

In 1969 the B&A's Marley Creek Bridge was washed out and the B&A ceased service south of Glen Burnie, again without requesting permission to abandon the line.

[32] After that, all that remained in service was a six-mile (9.7 km) stub from the B&O Junction near Cherry Hill to Dorsey Road in Glen Burnie with occasional runs farther south to deliver sand or coal.

Alco-Gravure, which owned a printing plant in Glen Burnie served by the B&A, quickly sued to force the B&A to restore service when negotiations failed.

[36][37] In 1973, after trains stopped running due to the damaged bridge, State Senator Alfred J. Lipin proposed turning the rail line into a trail.

[40] In 1973, the Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad's public bus system was absorbed by Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) as Route 14.

[1][6] The state began eyeing the B&A for rapid transit passenger service to Baltimore as early as 1963, but it would take decades for that to happen, and over the intervening years the line would shrink through a series of abandonments and sell its property to various entities.

[31] In 1979, Anne Arundel County purchased the no longer used section of the 66-foot (20 m) wide right of way from Dorsey Road in Glen Burnie to the north shore of the Severn River for the purpose of creating the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail and park.

[43] In 1986 WIA donated the Severn River Railroad Trestle to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources so that they could demolish it and 1989,[48][49] it was declared a navigational hazard and what remained of it was torn down.

In May 1991, Maryland bought the still active part of the B&A railroad for the southern leg of the light rail system for $9 million, but the state had to promise to maintain freight operations to appease the Interstate Commerce Commission.

[56][57][58] Starting in early 1992, the state provided freight service to Quebecor Printing Inc. (formerly Alco-Gravure) in Glen Burnie via the state-owned Canton Railroad.

[59] In 1996, MTA commissioned a study to analyze the environmental impact of extending the light rail 0.75 miles (1.21 km) along the B&A right-of-way, by then the B&A Trail, as far south as 1st Avenue in Glen Burnie.

[60] During negotiations for the sale of the B&A's right-of-way, one of the sticking points was that the B&A wanted to retain exclusive rights to run freight on the line at night.

On February 9, 1995, the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad Company, by that time merely an entity on paper with a locomotive, filed to acquire and operate approximately 75.9 miles (122.1 km) of rail line from the Mid Atlantic Railroad, which operated track between Mullin's, SC and Whiteville NC, and between Chadbourn, NC and Conway, SC.

[70] As Part of state highway project, a bike lane along route 50 and the Severn River Bridge, connected the trail to Annapolis.