[2][3] After the New York and New England Railroad succeeded merging with the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad at Hopewell Junction en route to the Fishkill Ferry station, they sought to expand traffic onto the newly built Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge in order to move goods to the other side of the Hudson River, and the Central New England Railway was perfectly willing to provide a connection.

The CNE line was originally chartered as the Dutchess County Railroad in 1889 and ran southeast from the bridge to Hopewell Junction, and was operational on May 8, 1892.

Passenger service was phased out beginning in the 1930s, the same decade the New Haven Railroad faced crippling bankruptcy.

The service ended in a dispute over haulage charges and the traffic was diverted to the longer all Penn Central route through Selkirk, New York.

[1] The portion of the line west of Hopewell Junction, New York, has been abandoned and now forms part of the Dutchess Rail Trail.