Southern New England Railway

However, all work stopped in November 1912, ostensibly due to an inability of worldwide bond markets to finance further GT expansion, although pressure from the New Haven, at the time closely allied with financier J. Pierpont Morgan, was widely suspected.

Several reasons have been given for the abandonment of the SNE project in addition to the war: bankruptcy of the GT due to overexpansion by subsidiary Grand Trunk Pacific; a desire by the reorganized railroad (Canadian National Railways) to concentrate on serving Canadian ports with existing lines rather than building new ones in the U.S.; the existence of an all-weather port in southern New England (New London) already served by the Central Vermont; the Federal control of American railroads between 1917 and 1920 and its disruptive aftermath; and the increasing influence of the motor truck and automobile (passenger service on the SNE had been contemplated along with freight).

The construction of the SNE's gently-graded "air line" had its geographical costs in high fills, long trestles, and sharp curves.

The company purposely had not sought a charter to build through the home state of the rival New Haven, which Charles M. Hays assumed would mount significant opposition to the SNE in the Connecticut legislature.

Typical of railroad construction at the time, the SNE also built many semi-permanent wooden trestles, around which fill would be dumped to create embankments.

The former route, leading into Providence Union Station, was planned to pass through a tunnel under Smith Hill, on which little if any construction was undertaken before cessation of work in Rhode Island.