diff --git a/django/core/management/templates.py b/django/core/management/templates.py
index cf6801d18bc..307841522ec 100644
--- a/django/core/management/templates.py
+++ b/django/core/management/templates.py
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ class TemplateCommand(BaseCommand):
             if self.verbosity >= 2:
                 self.stdout.write("Cleaning up temporary files.\n")
             for path_to_remove in self.paths_to_remove:
-                if os.path.isfile(path_to_remove):
+                if path.isfile(path_to_remove):
                     os.remove(path_to_remove)
                 else:
                     shutil.rmtree(path_to_remove,
@@ -178,14 +178,15 @@ class TemplateCommand(BaseCommand):
             if template.startswith('file://'):
                 template = template[7:]
             expanded_template = path.expanduser(template)
-            if os.path.isdir(expanded_template):
+            expanded_template = path.normpath(expanded_template)
+            if path.isdir(expanded_template):
                 return expanded_template
             if self.is_url(template):
                 # downloads the file and returns the path
                 absolute_path = self.download(template)
             else:
                 absolute_path = path.abspath(expanded_template)
-            if os.path.exists(absolute_path):
+            if path.exists(absolute_path):
                 return self.extract(absolute_path)
 
         raise CommandError("couldn't handle %s template %s." %
@@ -203,13 +204,13 @@ class TemplateCommand(BaseCommand):
         if self.verbosity >= 2:
             self.stdout.write("Downloading %s\n" % url)
         try:
-            path, info = urllib.urlretrieve(url,
-                                            os.path.join(tempdir, filename))
+            the_path, info = urllib.urlretrieve(url,
+                                                path.join(tempdir, filename))
         except IOError, e:
             raise CommandError("couldn't download URL %s to %s: %s" %
                                (url, filename, e))
 
-        used_name = path.split('/')[-1]
+        used_name = the_path.split('/')[-1]
 
         # Trying to get better name from response headers
         content_disposition = info.get('content-disposition')
@@ -230,18 +231,18 @@ class TemplateCommand(BaseCommand):
         # Move the temporary file to a filename that has better
         # chances of being recognnized by the archive utils
         if used_name != guessed_filename:
-            guessed_path = os.path.join(tempdir, guessed_filename)
-            shutil.move(path, guessed_path)
+            guessed_path = path.join(tempdir, guessed_filename)
+            shutil.move(the_path, guessed_path)
             return guessed_path
 
         # Giving up
-        return path
+        return the_path
 
-    def splitext(self, path):
+    def splitext(self, the_path):
         """
         Like os.path.splitext, but takes off .tar, too
         """
-        base, ext = posixpath.splitext(path)
+        base, ext = posixpath.splitext(the_path)
         if base.lower().endswith('.tar'):
             ext = base[-4:] + ext
             base = base[:-4]
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
index 062e1a2c757..d33cfee83b8 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
@@ -1414,6 +1414,18 @@ class StartProject(LiveServerTestCase, AdminScriptTestCase):
         self.assertTrue(os.path.isdir(testproject_dir))
         self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(os.path.join(testproject_dir, 'additional_dir')))
 
+    def test_template_dir_with_trailing_slash(self):
+        "Ticket 17475: Template dir passed has a trailing path separator"
+        template_path = os.path.join(test_dir, 'admin_scripts', 'custom_templates', 'project_template' + os.sep)
+        args = ['startproject', '--template', template_path, 'customtestproject']
+        testproject_dir = os.path.join(test_dir, 'customtestproject')
+
+        out, err = self.run_django_admin(args)
+        self.addCleanup(shutil.rmtree, testproject_dir)
+        self.assertNoOutput(err)
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.isdir(testproject_dir))
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(os.path.join(testproject_dir, 'additional_dir')))
+
     def test_custom_project_template_from_tarball_by_path(self):
         "Make sure the startproject management command is able to use a different project template from a tarball"
         template_path = os.path.join(test_dir, 'admin_scripts', 'custom_templates', 'project_template.tgz')
diff --git a/tests/urls.py b/tests/urls.py
index 4cd603e29f9..4f37ab5f52b 100644
--- a/tests/urls.py
+++ b/tests/urls.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ urlpatterns = patterns('',
     # admin custom URL tests
     (r'^custom_urls/', include('regressiontests.admin_custom_urls.urls')),
 
-    # admin custom URL tests
+    # admin scripts tests
     (r'^admin_scripts/', include('regressiontests.admin_scripts.urls')),
 
 )