In 1844, seven years after the Rhode Island section of the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad opened, a small station was placed at Wickford.

[3] A new station named Wickford Junction was built in 1871 at a cost of $8,000; a $3,500 addition was added sixteen years later.

[2] The station building was torn down in 1969 as rail service declined, leaving just the stone foundation, which was later filled with gravel.

[4][5] The station, by then just bare platforms, was served by a single New London-Providence round trip (cut to Westerly-Providence by Penn Central on November 22, 1971).

[7] Amtrak's New Haven-Boston Beacon Hill began service on April 30, 1978, including a stop at Wickford Junction.

[10][11]: 65 The Wickford Landing branch's right-of-way is still extant, as are the remains of a turntable about 700 feet (200 m) north of Ten Rod Road.

Bob Coie, a local builder, had bought a strip of land along the tracks in 1959 and acquired a large parcel along their west side in 1982.

In 1985, he convinced the town to upzone the land for commercial use with the intention of eventually building a "pre-planned business district" and commuter rail station there.

[18][19] In late 2009, the State of Rhode Island spent $3.2 million to purchase 350,000 square feet (33,000 m2) of land for the station and parking garage, with hopes that it could be in service in 2011.

[23][19] A major part of the modern station is the four-story parking garage, which was modeled after the nearby Lafayette Mill.

[31] Previous official discussions about adding weekend service to T. F. Green Airport and Wickford Junction took place in 2014.

[33] In July 2015, the agency renewed plans to sell the park-and-ride lot for an estimated $1.9 million and reroute the buses, but similar concerns were voiced at a public meeting.

[37] Only several days of "preliminary work" were completed by August 31 when Coie's company, owner of the adjacent shopping plaza, filed a lawsuit against RIDOT.

The service, which could be operated with multiple units rather than conventional locomotive-hauled commuter trains, was expected to increase ridership at Wickford to as much as 3,400 riders per day.