Providence & Worcester Railroad.

The Providence & Worcestor Railroad was incorporated in Massachusetts as the Providence and Worcester Railway on March 12, 1844, and as the Providence and Worcester Railroad in Rhode Island in May 1844. The two companies merged November 25, 1845, as the Providence and Worcester Railroad . The company bought the Blackstone Canal, also running between Providence, Rhode Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and began construction, partly on its banks, in 1845. The line opened in two sections, the part south of Millville on September 27, 1847, and the rest on October 20. The line from Providence to Central Falls, Rhode Island, was shared with the Boston and Providence Railroad, which at the same time built a connection from its old line (ending in East Providence) over to the Providence & Worcester Railroad .

In 1889 the Providence &Worcester Railroad was leased to the New York, Providence & Boston Railroad . On July 1, 1892, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, better known as the New Haven Railroad, assumed that lease for 99 years. The New Haven Railroad merged into Penn Central on January 1, 1969. On April 6, 1970, the P&W announced its intention to separate from the merger. After a legal battle, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the request on August 25, 1972, and on November 2 Penn Central signed the agreement effective December 30. The P&W cancelled the lease on February 3, 1973. Since then, the P&W has taken over many other lines from the former Penn Central and Boston and Maine Railroad and acquired trackage rights over Amtrak 's shore line west of Providence. By the mid-1980s it owned over 400 miles of track in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

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