As of February 2022, a total of five

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s operate in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

. Freight services are largely operated by the

Providence and Worcester Railroad The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, ...

, which interchanges with the state's only other freight railroad, the Seaview Transportation Company, a

switching and terminal railroad A switching and terminal railroad is a freight railroad company whose primary purpose is to perform local switching services or to own and operate a terminal facility. Switching is a type of operation done within the limits of a yard. It genera ...

serving the Port of Davisville. Passenger service is provided along Rhode Island's portion of the Northeast Corridor by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

, supplemented by MBTA Commuter Rail service from Wickford Junction northbound towards

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Rhode Island is also home to one heritage railroad, the Newport and Narragansett Bay Railroad, which operates excursions on a segment of track on Aquidneck Island which is disconnected from the rest of the United States rail network.

Freight carriers

Passenger carriers

Defunct railroads

;Electric *

Bay State Street Railway The Bay State Street Railway Company was a horse-drawn and electric streetcar railroad operated on the streets of Boston, Massachusetts and communities directly north (stretching into New Hampshire) and south (extending into Rhode Island) of th ...

* Fall River and Stone Bridge Street Railway * Groton and Stonington Street Railway * Middletown and Portsmouth Street Railway * Newport and Fall River Street Railway * Newport and Providence Railway * Newport Street Railway * Norwich and Westerly Railway * Old Colony Street Railway * Pawcatuck Valley Railway * Pawtucket Street Railway * Providence Cable Tramway Company (also a cable-car line) * Providence and Danielson Railway * Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad *

Rhode Island Company The United Electric Railways Company (UER) was the Providence-based operator of the system of interurban streetcars, trolleybuses, and trolley freight in the state of Rhode Island in the early- to mid-twentieth century. The UER was chartered in ...

* Rhode Island Suburban Railway * Sea View Railroad * Union Railroad *

United Electric Railways The United Electric Railways Company (UER) was the Providence-based operator of the system of interurban streetcars, trolleybuses, and trolley freight in the state of Rhode Island in the early- to mid-twentieth century. The UER was chartered in ...

Warwick Railway The Warwick Railway (reporting mark WRWK) was a railroad in Rhode Island, United States. It was originally chartered in 1873 under the name Warwick Railroad, with a route connecting Cranston to Oakland Beach, away. Opened in 1875, the company ...

;Not completed *

Southern New England Railway The Southern New England Railway was a project of the Grand Trunk Railway (GT) to build a railroad from the GT-owned Central Vermont Railway at Palmer, Massachusetts south and east to the all-weather port of Providence, Rhode Island. Much gradin ...

Freight carriers

Passenger carriers

Defunct railroads

Bibliography

Notes

References

See also