[3] South Street (Roslindale), Central (Bellevue), and West Roxbury all opened with the branch; Highland was added around 1855.

[4] On June 1, 1853, the Charles River Branch Railroad was extended from Newton Upper Falls into Needham as the first stage of a line to Dover and beyond.

[4] Building the cutoff required a significant length of difficult rock cuts – "one of the heaviest pieces of short railroad construction ever attempted in New England" – reaching a depth of 57 feet (17 m) at Great Plain Avenue.

[4][10] On April 11, 1966, a two-car inbound train from Needham derailed at Gardner Street in West Roxbury, injuring 61 aboard, due to a tampered switch.

[10] The stop at Forest Hills, not used since 1940 as the adjacent Washington Street Elevated provided more frequent service, was reopened in June 1973.

However, as the project was stalled over the next few decades, funding was found only to complete the replacement portion to Forest Hills in 1987, and so the Needham Line was kept as a locomotive-hauled commuter service.

[12] The line was shut down on weekends in September through November 2017 for the installation of Positive Train Control equipment in order to meet a 2020 federal deadline.

[15] As part of that schedule change, all Needham Line trains began stopping at Ruggles station after an additional platform there was completed.

[1] An infill station at the West Roxbury Education Complex was proposed in 2023 as part of plans to move the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics & Science to the site.