The 88 stations case was a 1935–40 controversy and court case involving the Old Colony Division of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The New Haven entered bankruptcy in 1935; the next year, it ended the 1893 lease of the unprofitable Old Colony Division, but continued operating those lines by court order. The Old Colony and New Haven closed 88 stations in Massachusetts (plus five in Rhode Island) on July 18, 1938, ending passenger service altogether on some lines. In May 1939, the Old Colony filed to abandon all freight and passenger service on its lines. In November 1939, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Palmer v. Massachusetts that a district court did not have authority to order the discontinuance of intrastate passenger service. Thirty-two of the stations were reopened in 1940, with 40 percent of service cut in lieu of total abandonment. History Background The Old Colony Railroad consolidated most rail lines in southeastern Massachusetts under its control in the 1870s and 1880s, including a lease of the Boston and Providence Railroad in 1888. The New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) controlled several additional lines including the Charles River Branch, Dorchester Branch, and its Boston–Hartford mainline. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (New Haven) leased the Old Colony in 1893 and the NYN&NE in 1895, creating a railroad monopoly in southeastern Massachusetts and much of Rhode Island. The New Haven's 99-year lease of the Old Colony was treated as equivalent to ownership, with the Old Colony fully integrated into the New Haven system. Redundant routes were cut, and both public and internal documents used only the New Haven name. By the 1930s, the New Haven's largest freight terminal and only steam locomotive shop were both on the ex-Old Colony system; more passengers entered Boston on Old Colony lines than entered New York on the New Haven. Short-distance passenger service in New England peaked around 1900, and began falling as electric streetcars and then automobiles took traffic. Increased freight traffic during World War I further reduced passenger operations. Several lightly used Old Colony branch lines were replaced with buses in the 1920s and early 1930s, while the Shawmut and Milton branches were replaced by a rapid transit extension. The New Haven suffered a sharp reduction in revenues during the early years of the Great Depression. Cases such as Munn v. Illinois (1876)