an interest in. As part of these transactions, the P&W lease was transferred from the Stonington Line to the New Haven under the same terms as originally written. The New Haven operated the P&W for the next 77 years. Under the New Haven Despite the company's lease, the New Haven only owned a very small number of shares91 out of 35,000by 1905, finding that P&W shareholders were very reluctant to part with their shares. That year, the New Haven attempted to get a bill passed in the Rhode Island General Assembly that would allow it to condemn the shares of minority shareholders that owned stock in the companies it leased, as long as the New Haven held a simple majority of all shares. Due to significant opposition, most fiercely by the Providence and Worcester Railroad, this attempt was defeated; the bill was amended to require the owning railroad to hold at least 75 percent of a company's shares before condemnation of minority shareholders' shares was possible. This meant that the New Haven could not purchase the P&W unless it was willing to buy 75 percent of the company's shares, securing the P&W's continued existence as a company. These same rules protecting minority shareholders would pave the way for the Providence and Worcester to regain its independence in the future. The New Haven's monopolistic tendencies attracted attention from regulators, and many of its acquisitions were obtained well above market value. These factors combined to cause economic problems for the company, and as a result the P&W facilities in Valley Falls were largely closed from 1907 to the 1920s. Continued money problems and the Great Depression brought the New Haven into bankruptcy in 1935, but the P&W's lessee continued to make its lease payments on time. When the New Haven emerged from its long bankruptcy in 1947, the P&W remained a leased property, along with the Norwich and Worcester Railroad and Holyoke and Westfield Railroad; it did not join the fate of most New Haven lessors which were consolidated. Both freight and passenger train traffic were initially strong under New Haven control. Fifteen passenger trains traveled the line each day in 1919, but by 1935 just one passenger train ran each way. The State of Maine Express, which connected New York City and Portland, Maine, began using the P&W route in 1946, adding a second train on the line each way daily.