The association held its inaugural meeting in the second class station buffet in Zurich. On 26 February 1942, 76 people representing the worlds of transport and business gathered there to found the Swiss Museum of Transport Association. Chaired by the director of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport, the assembled gentlemen discussed the establishing of a transport museum, approved the statutes and elected the first steering committee. A further 17 years were to pass before the museum in Lucerne opened to the public on 1 July 1959. Today, the museum – still organised as an association – is the most visited such institution in the country and has a membership of 36,000.
The transport museum started out with three departments – railways, roads and aviation – and also covered the realms of communications, postal services, telegraphy and telephony, as well as waterborne transport and tourism. Even in those early days it benefited from a transport archive and a conference hall. The museum has remained true to the founding concept of showcasing mobility in all its guises; it has even expanded on them by adding a department devoted to space travel.
Executive Board
| Franz Steinegger, lic. iur., Former National Councillor, Altdorf (Chair) |
| Olivier Fantino, Geschäftsführer strasseschweiz, Bern |
| Anton Häne, President of the Foundation Board SBB Historic – SBB Heritage Foundation, Moosseedorf |
| Pascal Kreder, Delegate of the Board of Directors, Reflection Marketing, Zurich |
| Paul Kurrus, Former National Councillor and businessman, Arlesheim |
| Urs W. Studer, former Mayor of Lucerne, Lucerne |
| Beat Züsli, Mayor of Lucerne, Lucerne |
