Streetcars in New Orleans

Streetcars have been part of the public transportation network of New Orleans since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of the city's streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue line, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world. Today, the streetcars are operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA).

New Orleans currently has five operating streetcar lines: St. Charles, Riverfront, Canal (with two branches), and Rampart–Loyola. The St. Charles Avenue Line is the only line that has operated continuously throughout New Orleans' streetcar history (though service was interrupted after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and resumed only in part in December 2006, as noted below), All other lines were replaced by bus service between the late 1940s and early 1960s. Preservationists were unable to save streetcar service on Canal Street, but succeeded in securing historic landmark protection for the St. Charles Avenue Line.

Interest in rail transit revived in the late 20th century. The newly constructed Riverfront Line began service in 1988, and streetcar service returned to Canal Street in 2004, forty years after it had been discontinued. A new line on Loyola Avenue opened in 2013 and was extended onto Rampart Street in 2016.

In , the streetcar system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .

History

Beginnings

On April 23, 1831, the Pontchartrain Railroad Company (PRR) established the first rail service in New Orleans along a line running north on Elysian Fields Avenue from the Mississippi River toward Lake Pontchartrain. These first trains, however, were pulled by horses because the engines had not yet arrived from England. The PRR received its first working steam engine the next year, and first put it into service on September 27, 1832. Service continued in a mixed fashion, running sometimes with locomotives, and at other times with horse traction. A round trip fare at that time was seventy-five cents.

The streetcar system remained integrated until 1902.

Horsecar companies and lines operated

In the late 1800s, several streetcar companies operated various lines throughout New Orleans:

Consolidation of operations under a single company had the advantage of untangling and rationalizing some streetcar lines. As an extreme example, consider the Coliseum line, which had the nickname Snake Line, because it wandered all over uptown New Orleans. Its early name Canal and Coliseum and Upper Magazine gives an idea of the route. Under consolidation, Coliseum was pretty much limited to service on its namesake street, with trackage on upper Magazine Street turned over to the Magazine line, as one might expect. Other efficiencies were instituted, such as reducing the number of streetcar lines operating over long stretches of Canal Street.

In 1974, the Amalgamated won a representation election and formed Local Division 1560 in New Orleans. Negotiations between the union and NOPSI were unsuccessful, and a strike followed. In December 1974, a contract was signed between NOPSI and Local 1560, but the strike was not completely settled until the following March.

Streetcars under RTA

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, it became apparent that private operation of the New Orleans transit system could not continue. Creation of a public body that could receive tax money and qualify for federal funding was necessary. The Louisiana legislature created the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) in 1979, and in 1983, RTA took over ownership and operation of the system. See the Current Lines and Future Network Expansion sections below.

Hurricane Katrina

thumb|Fallen pole across St. Charles streetcar tracks.

The area through which the St. Charles Avenue Line traveled fared comparatively well in Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on New Orleans at the end of August 2005, with moderate flooding only of the two ends of the line at Claiborne Avenue and at Canal Street. However, wind damage and falling trees took out many sections of trolley wire along St. Charles Avenue, and vehicles parked on the neutral ground (traffic medians) over the inactive tracks degraded parts of the right-of-way. At the start of October 2005, as this part of town started being repopulated, bus service began running on the St. Charles line.

The section running from Canal Street to Lee Circle via Carondelet Street and St. Charles Street in the Central Business District was restored December 19, 2006 at 10:30 a.m. Central time. Service from Lee Circle to Napoleon Avenue in uptown New Orleans was restored November 10, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. RTA restored streetcar service on the rest of St. Charles Ave. on December 23, 2007. Service along the remainder of the line on Carrollton Avenue to Claiborne Avenue resumed June 22, 2008. The time was needed to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and to perform other maintenance and upgrades to the lines that had been scheduled before the hurricane. Leaving the line shut down and the electrical system de-energized allowed the upgrades to be performed more safely and easily.

Perhaps more serious was the effect on the system's rolling stock. The vintage green streetcars rode out the storm in the sealed barn in a portion of Old Carrollton that did not flood, and were undamaged. However, the newer red cars (with the exception of one which was in Carrollton for repair work at the time) were in a different barn that unfortunately did flood, and all of them were rendered inoperable; early estimates were that each car would cost between $800,000 and $1,000,000 to restore. In December 2006, RTA received a $46 million grant to help pay for the car restoration efforts. The first restored cars were to be placed in service early in 2009.

Service on the Canal Street Line was restored in December 2005, with several historic St. Charles line green cars transferred to serve there while the flood-damaged red cars were being repaired. The eventual reopening of all lines was made a major priority for the city as it rebuilt.

Brookville Equipment Corporation (BEC) of Pennsylvania was awarded the contract to provide the components to rebuild 31 New Orleans' streetcars to help the city bring its transportation infrastructure closer to full capacity. The streetcars were submerged in over five feet of water while parked in their car barn, and all electrical components affected by the flooding had to be replaced. BEC's engineering and drafting departments immediately began work on this three-year project to return these New Orleans icons to service. The trucks for the cars were remanufactured by BEC with upgraded drives from Saminco and new control systems from TMV Control Systems. Painting, body work, and final assembly of the restored streetcars was carried out by RTA craftsmen at Carrollton Station Shops. As of March 2009, sufficient red cars had been repaired to take over all service on the Canal Street and Riverfront lines. As of June 2009, the last three Canal Street cars were scheduled for repair. The seven Riverfront cars were worked on next; they began to return to service in early 2010.

Current lines

St. Charles runs from Canal Street along St. Charles Avenue and South Carrollton Avenue to its terminal at Carrollton and Claiborne. It is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, having opened in 1835.
Rampart–Loyola runs from the Union Passenger Terminal along Loyola Avenue to Canal Street, then along Rampart Street and Saint Claude Avenue to Elysian Fields Avenue. The line opened in October 2016 following completion of the French Quarter Rail Expansion, which added of track and six stops. Service was suspended between October 2019 and May 2024 after the collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel at Canal and Rampart.
Canal/Cemeteries runs the length of Canal Street, from near the Mississippi River to the cemeteries at City Park Avenue. The line originally operated from 1861 to 1964 and was rebuilt and reopened in 2004. A short extension opened in January 2018 added a new Cemeteries terminal with improved transfers to connecting bus routes.
Canal/City Park runs along Canal Street from near the Mississippi River to North Carrollton Avenue, terminating at City Park near the New Orleans Museum of Art at Esplanade Avenue.
Riverfront runs parallel to the Mississippi River from Esplanade Avenue in the French Quarter past Canal Street to the Convention Center near Julia Street. The line opened on October 14, 1988. Service to the Poydras and Julia Street stops was suspended from 2018 to 2025.

Future network expansion

RTA has plans to extend the Rampart-St. Claude line past its present terminal at St. Claude and Elysian Fields to Press Street, and also down Elysian Fields to the river to connect with the Riverfront line. These plans are not funded, and are on hold as more urgent needs are considered for funding.

There was a proposal, along with the general redevelopment of Claiborne Avenue, to build a streetcar line on N. Claiborne Avenue running from Poydras Street to Elysian Fields. However, it appears this proposal was never seriously considered and is unlikely to be fulfilled.

Current rolling stock

The St. Charles Line operates with historic vehicles built between 1923 and 1924 by the Perley A. Thomas Car Works of High Point, North Carolina. A total of 73 cars were built, of which 35 are required for current operations. These 900 series cars are part of the line's designation as a National Historic Landmark and therefore cannot be heavily modified, preventing them from being equipped with wheelchair lifts. In addition, one car built in 1896 by Ford, Bacon & Davis remains operational, although it no longer carries passenger seats, and is occasionally used for maintenance duties and special events.

With the introduction of the Riverfront and Canal Street lines, the RTA required additional vehicles. Two series of modern streetcars, designed to resemble the historic Perley Thomas cars, were built in-house by the RTA. Seven cars, designated the 457 series, were completed in 1997 for the Riverfront line. A second group, known as the 2000 series, was constructed beginning with a single car in 1999 and followed by 23 more between 2002 and 2003 for the restored Canal Street line. The trucks for the 2002–2003 vehicles were manufactured by Brookville Equipment Corporation.

{|class="wikitable"

! Image

! Model

! Manufacturer

! Built

! Number built

! Seats

| 200px

| 900series

| Perley A. Thomas Car Works

| 19231924

| 73

| 52

| 200px

| 457series

| rowspan="2" | New Orleans Regional Transit Authority

| 1997

| 7

| 40

| 200px

| 2000series

| 1999, 20022003

| 24

| 40

| 200x200px

| #29

| Ford, Bacon & Davis

| 1896

| 1

| None

Historic lines

thumb|Map of New Orleans Showing Street Railway System of the New Orleans Railways Company, January 1904.

In the mid 19th to early 20th century, the city had dozens of lines, including: Various proposals to revive a streetcar line with this name have been discussed in recent years, but the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority has no current plans to rebuild. Enthusiasts are nicknaming the new St. Claude line the "Desire line", despite the former and latter each having run on separate and distinct routes. For many years, a 1906 Brill-built semi-convertible streetcar was displayed in the French Market with a Desire route sign, although there is no evidence that cars of this type ever served the Desire Line. At first it was under cover; later out in the open, it deteriorated from the weather, and in the 1990s it was turned over to New Orleans RTA. It is currently housed at Carrollton Station in the car shops.

Freret (September 7, 1924 – December 1, 1946) – Created from trackage formerly part of the Carondelet line. Replaced with trolley bus and later diesel bus service.
St. Claude (February 21, 1926 – January 1, 1949) – This and the Gentilly Line were the last two streetcar lines to open in New Orleans until the August 1988 inauguration of the Riverfront line. Replaced with trolley bus and later diesel bus service. The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority has plans to rebuild a similar route.
Gentilly (February 21, 1926 – July 17, 1948) – Gentilly was derived from the old Villere Line. It was unusual in being named for the neighborhood it served, rather than the street along which it ran. At one end, it traversed the French Quarter. Then it turned up Almonaster (now Franklin) to its outer terminal at Dreux. Replaced by diesel bus service, which was eventually renamed Franklin for the street.
Orleans/Kenner interurban (or O.K. Line) – This line operated between 1915 and 1931 and connected New Orleans to Kenner. It began at the intersection of Rampart and Canal in New Orleans and followed the Tulane streetcar line to the intersection of S. Carrollton with S. Claiborne, then proceeded along the route of the present-day Jefferson Hwy. through Jefferson Parish to the St. Charles Parish Line in an area then known as Hanson City (now part of Kenner). This line was not a NOPSI service, although it came under NOPSI control in the late 1920s.
Loyola–Riverfront (January 28, 2013 – May 30, 2025) This line ran along Loyola Avenue from Union Passenger Terminal to Canal Street. It originally continued along Canal Street before running parallel to the riverfront to the French Market. Weekend service extensions to the French Market later became daily following the 2019 Hard Rock Hotel collapse, which blocked access to Canal Street and subsequently affected nearby riverfront stops during construction of the Four Seasons Hotel. The line was later renamed Loyola–UPT and then Loyola–Riverfront in 2024 after partial restoration of service.

Preserved streetcars

In addition to the 35 Perley Thomas-built 900-series streetcars that serve the St. Charles line, the following New Orleans streetcars have been preserved in various ways.