announced the closure of the A branch on a "trial" basis. The A branch was chosen for closure because much of its route consisted of street running sections from Watertown to Packards Corner, and in 1964 there had been objections to keeping the service past Newton Corner. Streetcars last ran on June 20, 1969, with the route 57 bus beginning the next day. Track removal The legacy tracks remained after 1969, being used for several decades to allow Green Line streetcars to reach the Watertown Carhouse for maintenance. The last use of the line was in 1993, when the fleet of PCC streetcars used for the Ashmont–Mattapan high-speed line was refurbished at the Watertown carhouse. The electrified overhead wire was finally removed in March 1994. Additional overhead infrastructure, as well as the tracks themselves, were mainly removed by the end of the summer of 1996 as part of a resurfacing project on North Beacon Street. Remnants of the tracks are still visible today in the Watertown Yard bus terminal (no longer used for railcar maintenance), as well as a short stub track at Packard's Corner, where the "A" branch used to diverge from the "B" branch. The stub, part of the former outbound track, was used for temporarily storing disabled trains until it was shorted to just a few feet long in the mid 2000s; the switch was not disconnected until 2014 and not paved over until 2020. Restoration of the "A" branch was advocated to provide a one-seat ride to downtown Boston from the northern corridor (rather than requiring a transfer at Kenmore), but was ruled too costly and less safe compared to the replacement bus service. Bus routes Route 57 The 57 Watertown Yard–Kenmore station bus was initiated in 1969 as replacement service for the "A" branch. The 57 follows the same routing from Watertown Yard to except for the Newton Corner rotary, where inbound buses follow traffic rather than operating in a counterflow lane as streetcars had. As a way to make the service more attractive, the MBTA originally had the 57 operate as a limited (boarding-only outbound and dropoff-only inbound) between Packards Corner and Kenmore, with the "B" branch providing local service along Commonwealth Avenue. In December 2006 the 57 began making local stops on Commonwealth. Since free transfers had been previously eliminated by the M.T.A. in October 1961, Watertown riders had to pay a double