Nine months after the Dutch Transport Museum closed its doors, a new location has been found. The museum remains in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer, but moves from Nieuw-Vennep to Hoofddorp. “We are cautiously happy, but the road is still long,” director Arno van der Holst tells NH.
The director hopes that the new Transport Museum will open its doors on the SADC (Schiphol Area Development Company) site in Hoofddorp in about a year’s time. “They have promised us a spot, but we still have to indicate where exactly and how big it will be.”
That could be a lengthy process, because the museum must apply to the municipality for permits. “And of course we have to finance everything.” But the fact that we managed to find a new location in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer is already quite a victory.
Below, watch the report that NH Nieuws made just before the museum closed in March. Text continues below video.
That was the main wish of many volunteers and visitors. For example, reporter Celine Sulsters spoke with model builder Theo van der Elst last March at the old location in Nieuw-Vennep. He is working on a model in the museum, because he has no room for it at home.
“If the museum goes too far from my hometown, I will no longer be able to go there to complete it further,” he said worriedly at the time. “It has been in the shed for fourteen years, so it would be a shame if it had to go back.” If everything goes well, this is not necessary. The museum will then eventually open its doors again, a ten-minute drive from the old location on Lucas Bolsstraat.
Emergency buildings
The museum’s volunteers have not been idle in recent months. They simply continued to work on the restoration of showpieces such as the ‘Trans Europa Express.‘ The collection is still at the old location, because the housing project that is to be built there has not yet been completed.
“We hope to be able to move everything to the new location immediately, but if we have to leave before the building is ready, we will erect temporary buildings,” Van der Holst has already decided.