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The Shore Line Trolley Museum is pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement with The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to receive Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) Car 745, which was parked in the PATH station under the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, and survived the tragedy intact. The museum and East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr. will be receiving the car on Thursday August 6th at 11:15 a.m., as it arrives at its location on River Street in East Haven. The vehicle will be given traditional bagpipe parade with a Police and Fire escort from the corner of River and Hemingway Avenue down to the location of the Trolley Museum at 17 River Street. The short route is expected to be lined with emergency service personnel from East Haven and Branford along with other area departments. Following the procession, a brief speaking program will be held at the entrance of the museum, which in addition to Mayor Maturo and the officials of the Trolley Museum is expected to be attended by Branford First Selectman James Cosgrove, local State Legislators, and representatives of PATH. Other first responders and the public are also invited to attend.

The car which is being donated is one of two that were found in a cast iron tunnel, the strength of which protected the cars intact from the pressures from the collapsing buildings above. On the morning of 9/11 they were sent to the World Trade Center to pick up passengers, but with evacuation underway, the cars were simply left standing in the tunnel. No passengers were found inside when the car was discovered during excavation. Car 745, which since that time has been housed in an airplane hangar at JFK Airport, is still in the same condition as when it was excavated from the tunnel in the World Trade Center clean up. The car was to be included in the 9/11 Memorial Museum but was determined to be too big for their site.

The public will have an opportunity to view car 745 at the Shore Line Trolley Museum this fall once it has been inspected by museum maintenance staff. In 2016, a permanent display will be created and dedicated, which will include car 745, original World Trade Center PATH station signage, and pieces of the cast iron tunnel itself for all to see as a remembrance of the day that changed the nation like no other.

For further information contact Event Coordinator: Wayne Sandford: Info@shorelinetrolley.org

THE SHORE LINE TROLLEY MUSEUM, operated by the Branford Electric Railway Association, Inc., strives to educate the public about the story of the trolley and related forms of mass transit in their historic context. The Museum operates the Branford Electric Railway, opened in 1900, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior as the oldest continuously-operated suburban trolley line in the United States. The Museum’s extensive collection includes nearly 100 trolleys and similar vehicles, an extensive archive, and artifacts of the trolley era.