On several transit-related mailing lists, there have been a number of questions regarding the slow pace of restoring transit service, particularly repair and/or expansion of the streetcar lines in New Orleans. A number of suggestions have been made, and unfortunately, there's always one or more "gotchas" to what appear at face value to be very good ideas. Here are some of them, and why they're problematic:
Military Options: In the immediate aftermath of the storm, NBC's Brian Williams (who rode the storm out in the Superdome, btw), went on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and remarked about how, when he was in Iraq, if the Army wanted a bridge, they called up an engineering unit, and there was a bridge where they watned it. It amazed him that the same army that can do that couldn't get relief to New Orleans. Trolley enthusiasts have wondered as well why Army Engineers or SeaBees couldn't come in and help with building/rebuilding roads to get the trolleys running. Williams illustrates the problem in his own statement, though, by saying "when I was in Iraq." The US Army is all but totally in Iraq. Even though the Louisiana National Guard units rotated home after the storm, they were required to leave the bulk of their equipment behind.
FEMA Assistance: FEMA is financing the bulk of the reconstruction of New Orleans' transit infrastructure. There are two big problems when it comes to dealing with FEMA. First and most obvious is that funds coming from FEMA come to the NORTA in dribs and drabs. One of the reasons that the St. Charles line is progressing is that the funding for most of that work is based in a FTA project that was approved before the storm. The other problem is that FEMA funds are targeted at re-building, not re-designing. That means there will be money to repair the Riverfront and Von Dullen streetcars that were flooded, but none to buy/build more of these vehicles. If ever there was a time to take a step back and examine the possibility of expanding light rail in New Orleans, it's now, but the money being sent to the city will be earmarked to replace buses.
New FTA projects: This was a pipe dream even before the storm. The Canal line was financed at an 80/20, federal-to-local ratio. The Bush Administration changed that to 50/50 in 2004. I suspect that funding the Iraq and Afgan wars played a big part in that change, and the military are spending even more money today than they were in 2004.
Labor: Everything is slow in terms of the construction business in New Orleans. The reason is obvious: The amount of construction work is overwhelming. From Metairie, where 6" to 1' of water in homes meant people had to cut out drywall up to 4' high (so you could easily rebuild the walls with 4' sheets), to parts of the city where homes got 10+ feet of water, there's a lot going on. The city's largest road construction firm (and the company that built the new Canal line) is Boh Brothers. They're wrapped up in a huge upgrade to I-10 in Jefferson Parish that started before the storm and won't be finished until next year.
What really slows down the municipal contracts is the residential and private commercial work. Businesses that needed to re-open as quickly as possible after the storm, as well as homeowners who needed to be back in their houses are willing to pay top dollar to general contractors. Those contractors in turn are able to offer much better wages to their crews than Boh Brothers can for street work, re-building St. Charles Avenue, or other low-bid municipal projects. Over 200K people have not returned to the metro area, and that drop has really put a hit on the pool of semi-skilled laborers. Sure, we've got a lot more Hispanic workers in the area (here both legally and illegally), but even they aren't enough to keep up with demand.
To sum it up, it's not as simple as fixing one issue or adding one ingredient to the gumbo to make transit projects in New Orleans click smoothly. As a local, I'm simply happy that we were fortunate enough that the Canal line trackage and wiring was essentially undamaged, and the 900-series streetcars were safe in Carrollton Station, so we at least have them running.
