A new station has since been proposed to be built in Niantic to serve the Shore Line East commuter rail service.

[5] The station was little-used by mid-century; it was divided into retail stores in 1954, and a 15-foot (4.6 m) by 30-foot (9.1 m) wooden shelter was constructed nearby.

[6][7]: 6  In 1975, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT) made plans to restore commuter rail service between New Haven and New London, with a twice-daily Clamdigger making the same stops as the pre-1972 train, including to the former Niantic station (now to be named simply East Lyme); although negotiations with Penn Central were successful, budgetary constraints prevented these plans from coming to fruition.

[9][10][11] The Clamdigger was reinstated on January 8, 1978, with commuter-based flag stops added at Groton, Clinton, Madison, Stony Creek, and Branford - but still not Niantic.

[12][13]: 11  The decaying wooden shelter had been torn down by the local Jaycees on February 18 of that year as a civic improvement project, so the Niantic 'station' consisted of "a strip of gravel dumped between two yellow two-by-fours".