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August 27, 2007
Adding a "Loyola Loop?"
At a time when RTA's ridership is about 15% of its pre-storm numbers, the notion of adding more streetcar service to the city sounds just crazy, but that's just what the Regional Planning Commission is suggesting. They want to look at the possibility of a "Loyola Loop" off of the Canal line:
Under the Regional Planning Commission proposal, streetcars would turn from Canal Street onto Elk Place and then Loyola Avenue, passing near City Hall and the storm-damaged Hyatt Hotel, which is scheduled to reopen next year. The cars then would turn onto the Union Passenger Terminal grounds before heading down Howard Avenue to Carondelet Street, where they would follow the St. Charles line's tracks back to Canal.
The idea isn't new, as streetcars used to run on Loyola prior to their post-WWII phaseout. Tying the Union Passenger Terminal more directly to the RTA system makes a lot of sense in terms of moving towards commuter rail that would feed in from the west, particularly the airport. Still, RTA is barely back on its feet, and the agancy is struggling to provide basic service. Not to mention that the RPC is advocating the expansion of a streetcar line that doesn't have its regular operating streetcar fleet. The 24 2000-series Von Dullen streetcars are currently being re-built after receiving major flood damage.
Still, this is a very forward-looking project that deserves serious consideration.
Posted by YatPundit at 8:32 AM | TrackBack
Getting the Buses rolling again...
The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority's struggle to get the city's transit system back up and running has been slow and sluggish for the last two years. The city's main bus service and storage site, the A. Philip Randolph SIS facility on Canal Street, was flooded with several feet of water. Not only did this ruin the "red ladies," the 400- and 2000-series streetcars, but it ruined dozens of buses as well as creating a hazmat situation because all of the oil, fluids, etc., in the service bays of the garage spread all over the facility.
Two years later, Randolph is cleaned up and operational, with the 900-series streetcars operating out of the Canal barn in the rear of the facility. The green streetcars running on Canal has returned the "tourism" face to the system, and that presence will expand when the repairs and upgrades to the St. Charles line are completed next year.
Bus transit, on the other hand, has been problematic. Ridership has dropped from around 3 million per month prior to the storm to 550K-575K now. While the decrease in local population is certainly a huge factor in that drop, the lack of operational buses contributes as well. Consultants hired by RTA lay the picture out clearly:
Ideally, the RTA should have 100 fully-functioning buses to serve its reduced customer base, officials from Booz Allen and GCR & Associates said. The consultants said that number should increase to 122 buses by next year and to 240 buses by 2012, when they expect ridership to return to pre-Katrina levels on many routes.
That's a tall order, given that RTA has about 60 operational buses, which are a combination of their own equipment that survived the storm and buses that have been loaned or donated to them. RTA has FEMA money that will enable them to purchase another 12 buses. There's still a lot of work to be done.