This is a list of all freight railroad (not streetcar or rapid transit) lines that have been built in Rhode Island, and does not deal with ownership changes from one company to another. The lines are named by the first company to build or consolidate them. Unless noted, every railroad eventually became part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad system.
| Name | From | To | Branches | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston and Providence Railroad | Massachusetts state line in Pawtucket | downtown Providence | East Providence Branch, Massachusetts state line in Pawtucket to Fox Point in Providence | was jointly owned with the Providence and Worcester Railroad south of Boston Switch in Central Falls |
| Providence and Worcester Railroad | Massachusetts state line in North Smithfield | downtown Providence | East Providence Branch, Valley Falls (in Cumberland) to East Providence (with a section in Massachusetts) | was jointly owned with the Boston and Providence Railroad south of Boston Switch in Central Falls |
| Rhode Island and Massachusetts Railroad | Valley Falls (in Cumberland) | Massachusetts state line in Cumberland (with a section in Massachusetts) | ||
| East Side Railroad Tunnel | East Providence | downtown Providence | built by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad | |
| Moshassuck Valley Railroad | Woodlawn (in Pawtucket) | Saylesville (in Lincoln) | remained independent | |
| Seekonk Branch Railroad | Short line in East Providence | |||
| Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad | East Providence | Bristol | ||
| Fall River, Warren and Providence Railroad | Warren | Massachusetts state line in Warren | ||
| Newport and Fall River Railroad | Massachusetts state line in Tiverton | Newport | ||
| Charles River Railroad | Massachusetts state line in Woonsocket | Woonsocket | ||
| Woonsocket and Pascoag Railroad | Woonsocket | Harrisville (in Burrillville) | ||
| Providence and Springfield Railroad | downtown Providence | Massachusetts state line at Burrillville | ||
| Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad | downtown Providence | Connecticut state line in Coventry | Dorrance Street Branch in Providence | |
| New York, Providence and Boston Railroad | downtown Providence | Connecticut state line in Westerly | South Providence Branch, Cranston Junction (in Cranston) to South Providence (in Providence) | |
| Pontiac Branch Railroad | Auburn (in Cranston) | Pontiac (in Warwick) | ||
| Pawtuxet Valley Railroad | Pontiac (in Warwick) | Hope (in Scituate) | ||
| Warwick Railroad | Auburn (in Cranston) | Buttonwoods (in Warwick) | remained independent, later became a street railway | |
| Naval Air Station Quonset Point | Davisville (in North Kingstown) | Quonset Point (in North Kingstown) | remained independent (U.S. Government owned) | |
| Newport and Wickford Railroad | Wickford Junction (in North Kingstown) | Wickford (in North Kingstown) | ||
| Narragansett Pier Railroad | Kingston (in South Kingstown) | Narragansett Pier (in Narragansett) | remained independent | |
| Wood River Branch Railroad | Wood River Junction (in Richmond) | Hope Valley (in Hopkinton) | remained independent | |
| Westerly Granite Quarry Proprietor's Railroad | Westerly | granite quarries | ||
| Southern New England Railway | Massachusetts state line in Woonsocket | Providence | South Providence Branch, around the west side of Providence | never finished, built by the Grand Trunk Railway |
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, railroad, lines and/or island:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“People who make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)
“While you are divided from us by geographical lines, which are imaginary, and by a language which is not the same, you have not come to an alien people or land. In the realm of the heart, in the domain of the mind, there are no geographical lines dividing the nations.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)
“Know that, on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, which was peopled with black women.... Their arms were all of gold.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)