Highland branch

Highland branch
Newton Centre station after the 1905–1907 grade crossing project lowered the right-of-way
Overview
Status	Closed
Locale	Boston, Massachusetts
Service
System	Boston and Albany Railroad
History
Opened	1886 (1886)
Closed	1958 (1958)
Technical
Line length	12.25 mi (19.71 km)
Character	Grade-separated double track
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map Legend 0 mi 0 km Boston South Station 1.2 mi 1.9 km Trinity Place/Huntington Avenue Brookline Junction 3.02 mi 4.86 km Chapel (closed 1893) 3.16 mi 5.09 km Longwood 3.89 mi 6.26 km Brookline 4.43 mi 7.13 km Brookline Hills 5.20 mi 8.37 km Beaconsfield 5.20 mi 8.37 km Reservoir 6.65 mi 10.7 km Chestnut Hill 8.11 mi 13.05 km Newton Centre 8.94 mi 14.39 km Newton Highlands Cook Street Junction Charles River Branch to Woonsocket 9.70 mi 15.61 km Eliot 10.54 mi 16.96 km Waban 11.56 mi 18.6 km Woodland 12.25 mi 19.71 km Riverside Riverside Junction Charles River Newton Lower Falls Branch to Newton Lower Falls Boston and Albany Railroad to Albany This diagram: view talk edit

The Highland branch, also known as the Newton Highlands branch, was a suburban railway line in Boston, Massachusetts. It was opened by the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1886 to serve the growing community of Newton, Massachusetts. The line was closed in 1958 and sold to the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), the predecessor of the current Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which reopened it in 1959 as a light rail line, now known as the D branch of the Green Line.

The first section of what became the Highland branch was built by the Boston and Worcester Railroad between Boston and Brookline in 1848. The Charles River Branch Railroad, a forerunner of the New York and New England Railroad, extended the line to Newton Upper Falls in 1852. The B&A bought the line in 1883 and extended to Riverside, rejoining its main line there. The MTA electrified the line when it rebuilt it for light rail use.

The conversion of the Highland branch into a light rail line was pioneering in several ways. Amid a backdrop of failing private passenger service in the United States, it was the first time a government entity in that country had assumed full responsibility for losses on a route. It was also the only example of converting an extant commuter rail line to light rail use.