In its early years, the line also was served by a Monday through Saturday daily round trip passenger train.

In 1977, the L&N received permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon the line, with a scheduled closure date of July 1, 1978.

This closure threatened the already tenuous status of the local economies of the surrounding rural counties, with multiple large employers in Hohenwald and Centerville facing insolvency with the loss of the line.

[1] As of 2018, the Authority and Railroad were seeking funding to conduct major infrastructure improvements, including replacement and refurbishment of bridges and trestles that were past their operating lives.

The SCTR, like other short lines in Tennessee, is largely funded through a state tax on railroad diesel fuel.