1969, the Penn Central Railroad, created out of a merger between the New Haven, New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads, took over operations of the New Haven and hauled the loads of sand the 2.5 miles between the sand pit and Tremont Junction, where they would be picked up by the Cape Cod local freight. This continued until 1973, when the Penn Central abandoned the rest of the line to Tremont. On March 7, 1992, a passenger excursion run by the Cape Cod Railroad ran down a short portion of the overgrown and dilapidated Fairhaven Branch. The train was only able to go so far because of dense overgrowth and poor track conditions. This would be the last passenger train on the Fairhaven Branch, and the last train the branch would ever see. Trail conversion Proposals to convert the line to a rail trail began in the 1970s. In 1996, a local resident built a narrow wooden bridge across the outlet channel of Eel Pond in Mattapoisett, enabling use of a section of the former right-of-way for recreation. He and others built a series of replacement bridges across the widening channel, with the last completed in 2010. In 1999, of the former line from the Fairhaven terminus to the Mattapoisett town line was converted to the Phoenix Rail Trail (named after nearby Fort Phoenix). The first of the Mattapoisett Rail Trail was completed in 2010, extending the trail to Mattapoisett Neck Road. That year, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School students rebuilt the bridge over the Mattapoisett River, allowing use of a further of unpaved right-of-way. The next in Mattapoisett from Mattapoisett Neck Road to Depot Street is expected to be completed in 2021. In January 2019, the state received a $9 million federal CMAQ grant to fund construction. In February 2019, MassDOT awarded a $7 million contract for the construction, with notice to proceed given in late March. The cost of the section, which is significantly higher than most rail trail construction, is due to the environmental difficulty of constructing a trail through sensitive wetlands. The Marion Pathway, constructed largely on the railroad right-of-way, is planned to be completed from Point Road through Marion Center to the Mattapoisett town line in 2021. Mattapoisett plans to complete an additional connecting segment to reach Industrial Drive from the Marion line; the state awarded $110,000 in construction funds in July 2020.