Scheduled passenger service between Fall River, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island on the Newport Secondary ended in 1938, and the New Haven Railroad and its successors never made large profits from freight service on the line.

The state in turned leased its section to the nonprofit, volunteer-run Old Colony and Newport Scenic Railway.

Passenger stock included an ex-Boston and Maine Railroad coach (#74) built in 1904 by the Laconia Car Company and an 1884 (?)

[1] The Newport Dinner Train began using ex-Branford Steam Railroad GE 44-ton switcher #6 for motive power in 2006; it was brought to the island by a barge.

[citation needed] It was sold in November 2014 and rebranded as the Newport and Narragansett Bay Railroad Company.