Recent newspaper articles have led some of our visitors and long-time friends to believe that the Trolley Museum must close to make way for the Inter-County Connector (lCC). The Museum offers the following information to clarify its current status and future plans for operations in Northwest Branch Park.

When will the Trolley Museum close?

The Trolley Museum is not closing. We are developing new facilities adjacent to our present location in Northwest Branch Park.

Why must the Museum move?

Changes in the location of the ICC alignment by the State Highway Administration (SHA) to reduce environmental impact require that the highway now cross through the area of our visitor center, car barn, and parking lot. In addition, the highway alignment will interrupt our existing railway. These factors require that we must move to new facilities.

What will the new Museum look like?

The new facilities will include streetcar display, streetcar maintenance, and visitor accommodation buildings which employ architectural elements of former electric railway buildings in Washington, DC. A new railway segment will connect these facilities to the end of the present railway. For the first time in the Museum's history, visitors will be able to approach streetcars from the Museum's collections inside a display building. Museum programming will expand in the Visitor's Center with dedicated auditorium, classroom, library, and archival storage spaces.

When will the Museum move?

SHA has asked that we vacate the present location during the Fall of 2008. Museum staff are working with design teams to develop construction drawings based on a master plan approved in 1999 when the threat of the ICC made improvement/expansion of existing facilities impossible. Uninterrupted Museum service for 20,000 visitors annually requires the cooperation of all agencies involved.