Initially, the branch ran from Warren to Brayton Point in Somerset, Massachusetts, which required a ferry transfer to Fall River.

Full ownership of each line was acquired in 1872 by the Boston & Providence which subsequently sold the Fall River Branch to the Old Colony the next year.

Attempts were made to run full size freight cars over the trolley tracks to Union Station, which resulted in frequent derailments.

[5]Under the New Haven, the PW&B and the Fall River Branch were one of the few electrified heavy-rail lines in New England outside of Massachusetts and Connecticut during the early twentieth century.

[5] Due to the high frequency of the route (headways were projected to be eight to ten minutes at peak times), the line could be considered the only rapid transit service to ever exist in Rhode Island.

Under electrification, the line operated similarly to an interurban service with the unique distinction that it utilized full-size heavy-rail equipment.

After the construction of the East Side Tunnel, all Bristol and Fall River services originated from Providence Union Station.

In Warren, the line split into two single-track branches; one going east to Fall River via the Slade's Ferry swing bridge, the other to the railroad's southern terminus at Bristol, Rhode Island.

That same year, all passenger service and through freight service ended south of Weir Junction on the Dighton and Somerset mainline when the swing bridge located at Mallard Point, located roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the Slade's Ferry Bridge, was disabled after a ship hit another bridge carrying power cables; this combined with the truncation of the Fall River branch effectively eliminated all east-west mainline rail connections to Fall River.

[2] The Crook Point Bascule Bridge and the East Side Tunnel were acquired by the state of Rhode Island in 1981 and all rail operations ceased shortly thereafter; the downtown Providence viaduct was demolished when the Northeast Corridor was re-routed to facilitate remodeling of the downtown area in Providence in the early 1980s.

In the present day, the Crook Point Bridge and East Side Tunnel remain abandoned and isolated from any active rail lines.

Freight continued to service a scrapyard at Wilkesbarre Pier until the early 2000s; by 2006, the portion between India Point and Pomham had been legally abandoned by the P&W.

[6] Before the line's full abandonment, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation briefly considered restoring passenger service to the PW&B right-of-way as a state-subsidized commuter rail line within a 1981 transit study that evaluated options to realign the Northeast Corridor.

The purpose of the study was to determine the potential for the use of the existing or rail-banked railroad rights-of-way for public transportation facilities and services.