VIA Rail formerly provided Atlantic passenger train service on this line, but abandoned the route when the tracks were sold in 1994.

A long history of deferred maintenance under various short-line operators caused the tracks to deteriorate, necessitating speed reductions on much of the line.

[3] The Orford Express, launched in 2006,[4] covered one small portion of the route (Eastman to Magog and Sherbrooke) seasonally, at low speed using its own trains (owned and insured separately from the underlying freight short lines) with tourist panorama cars.

[5] On October 8, 2020, the owners, PAL+, announced that they had made the decision to cease operations of the Orford Express tourist train.

On July 6, 2013, an unattended 74-car freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic, resulting in the fire and explosion of multiple tank cars and the confirmed death of forty-two people and five more missing and presumed dead.