History
Opening dates for the different sections are as follows:
- 1847 Kenmore–Brookline Village
- Summer 1852 Brookline Village–Cook Street Junction
- 1886 Cook Street Junction–Riverside
The earliest part of the line to be built was the Brookline Branch of the Boston and Worcester Railroad, which opened in 1847. It stretched 1.55 miles (2.50 km) from the B&W main line south of Kenmore Square southwest to the current location of Brookline Village station. The B&W became part of the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1867.
Next came the Charles River Branch Railroad, opened Summer 1852 from the end of the Brookline Branch to Newton Upper Falls. The line was at first operated by the Boston and Worcester, but in 1856 it was merged into the New York and Boston Railroad (having been merged with the Charles River Railroad in 1853), a company intending to build a new route between Boston and New York City in competition with the Boston and New York Central Railroad. Both of these companies passed through several changes in name and ownership before they merged in 1868 to form the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad. The BH&E became the New York and New England Railroad in 1873 and the New England Railroad in 1895 before being leased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1898.
In 1884, the Boston and Albany Railroad built a connecting line from Riverside on their main line southeast to what became Cook Street Junction on the NY&NE in Newton Highlands. The NY&NE had been sold to the B&A in 1882 north of the junction, giving the B&A full ownership of their Highland Branch. The B&A instituted loop service ("Newton Circuit"), going one way to Riverside on the main line and the other way on the Highland Branch; the NY&NE continued to use the branch as well.
In 1906 the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad built a new cutoff from Needham Junction east to their Dedham Branch at West Roxbury, and began routing NY&NE trains that way. However, in 1911, they too began running loop service on the "Needham Circuit", running one way on the old Boston and Providence Railroad to West Roxbury and the other way on the B&A Highland Branch.
NYNH&H service through Newton stopped in 1925, and the last B&A train ran over the Highland Branch on May 31, 1958.
Read more about this topic: Green Line "D" Branch
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