the whittendon branch and the mainline from raynham to easton were abandoned in 1966, followed by dighton to weir village in 1971, easton to stoughton in 1976, weir village to weir junction in 1982, and randolph to near braintree highlands in 1982. the state bought the abandoned line from stoughton to taunton on january 27, 1973 during an acquisition of penn central's commuter rail assets. conrail continued to operate the braintree highlands stub after being created from penn central in 1976, while the bay colony railroad took over the dean street industrial track (dean street to weir junction) in 1982. csx took over the former line from conrail in 1999. at the beginning of 2008, massachusetts coastal railroad took over several former csx and bay colony lines with a ten-year operating agreement. in april 2017, massdot released a request for information regarding potential operators for the dean street industrial track and other state-owned rail lines beginning in 2018.