In 1956, Congress decided to replace the streetcars with buses and on September 7, 1958 the last streetcar ran the route. The first section of the trail, a long stretch north from Campus Drive (formerly known as Paint Branch Parkway) to Greenbelt Road in College Park, opened in 2002. A second long section north to Paducah Road - no longer considered part of the trail - opened in 2005. In 2007, a third section south of the existing trail from Calvert Road to Albion Road in Riverdale Park opened. This part was originally called the College Park Trolley Trail. Then in 2008 a plan was formed to extend the trail south to Riverdale and Hyattsville and rebrand it as the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail. In 2012 work on the southern extension began with a five block long section from Madison to Hamilton in Hyattsville which was built as part of the EYA Arts District development. In 2014 that section was extended south to Farragut and north to Queensberry road by M-NCPPC. By 2016, that segment was extended north to Tuckerman Street. In November 2017, the first of the Riverdale Station sections, from Albion Road to 47th Street and from Tuckerman to just south of Van Buren opened. In November 2018, the short section from 47th Street to Woodberry Street in Hyattsville was completed and opened. A small section from Woodberry to just south of Van Buren is yet to be built. During the construction of the southern portion, parts of the northern portion were improved. In 2011, a new trail crossing at Campus Drive was constructed. In 2013, the trail gap between Calvert Road and Campus Drive was closed when a segment was built as a sidepath along Rhode Island Avenue. In early 2017, a section of the sound barrier south of Campus Drive was removed to allow the trail to pass straight through rather than divert around the barrier. The final sections, from Farragut Street to Charles Armentrout Drive in Hyattsville, as well as the Greenbelt Rd-University Boulevard pedestrian-crossing extension in College Park, are still in the planning phase. In late 2017, wayfinding signage kiosks and a formal website were created.