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With the decline of wooden shipbuilding and the coastal trade in the 1870's many coastal communities began to see railways as the key to resurrecting their communities. In 1872 the Grand Southern Railway was incorporated to build an 80 mile line to connect the coastal towns from St. Stephen to Saint John with the Western Extension line in West Saint John. Another reason for building the line was to provide a more direct route to Maine from Saint John than the route of the Western Extension line, which went north along St. John River. Construction began in 1876 but financial problems, legal disputes and disputes between the directors delayed completion of the line until 1881. The line never did make money it changed hands several times and eventually was leased to Canadian Pacific in 1911 for 999 years. The portion of the line from St. Stephen to Bonny River was abandoned in 1935. The last regular trip along the remaining portion of the line was made in 1955 and that portion of the line was finally abandoned in 1988. Like other lines in New Brunswick built to resurrect dying coastal communities this line also never had a large enough industrial base to make money.