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March 26, 2008

Feature Photo - Claiborne Terminal

The end of the St. Charles Ave. streetcar line, at S. Carrollton and S. Claiborne Avenues. This photo is from June, 2002.

Six more weeks to go, and the St. Charles line will be 100% operational. As of now, the line is only running the length of St. Charles, turning around at Riverbend. NORTA has announced that they expect to finish the upgrades and repairs to the line on S. Carrollton Ave. by May.

The intersection of S. Carrollton and S. Claiborne Avenues has been the location of the end of the St. Charles line since belt service was discontinued in 1951. It is a double-track terminal with a double-slip switch. Several bus lines terminate either in front of Palmer Park (like the bus on the left side of the photo), or on the neutral ground on S. Claiborne (to the right, just out of the photo). This intersection has long been a transit hub, dating back to 1915, when the Orleans-Kenner Railroad began operations.

The streetcars in the photo are Perley A. Thomas cars 940 and 961, both vintage 1923-24.

Posted by Edward Branley at 5:19 PM | TrackBack

January 23, 2008

Feature Photo: 904 Passing the Pickwick Club

Perley A. Thomas streetcar 904 passing the Pickwick Club, at the corner of Canal St. and St. Charles Avenue.

The Pickwick Club is an all-male, all-white lunch/social club. The club was originally affiliated with the Mistick Krewe of Comus, the oldest Carnival organization in the city. Comus has been around since 1857, when their two-float parade was the first of its kind in New Orleans. While the official connection between the club and Comus was broken in the 1880s, the membership of both organizations is reputed to be closely linked. Nobody knows for sure, however, because neither the Krewe nor the club make their membership public.

That lack of openness was the subject of a 1991 ordinance passed by the New Orleans City Council. That body decreed that, to get a permit to use public facilities like streets, an organization had to show it did not employ discriminatory practices in determining its membership. Rather than make its membership list public, Comus, along with two other Carnival organizations (Momus and Proteus) withdrew from the parade lineup. Proteus returned several years later, but Comus and Momus have steadfastly refused to comply, even though Comus won a lawsuit against the city, validating their right to freedom of assembly.

The Pickwick Club building is often confused with the Boston Club, which is actually down the street. While the Pickwick Club is closely aligned with Comus, the Boston Club is aligned with the School of Design, the organization which names Rex, King of Carnival, and parades on Mardi Gras morning. The Boston Club (which gets its name from the card game, not the city) is actually down the street. Prior to the 1991 blow-up, the Pickwick Club erected reviewing stands in front of the club on Canal St. Rex would roll down St. Charles and turn left onto Canal St., in front of the club. The king's float would stop there, and Rex would toast his queen, who watched the festivities of the day from that vantage point. Since the passage of the 1991 ordinance, however, the School of Design switched venues for their court, and now the toasts take place at the Intercontinental Hotel, at St. Charles and Poydras.

Posted by YatPundit at 6:14 AM | TrackBack

January 16, 2008

Carnival on St. Charles Avenue

A 400-series arch roof streetcar designed by Perley A. Thomas is in the middle of a parade, 1938. St. Charles was operating in belt service at that point in time (St. Charles outbound, Tulane inbound). One thing making me scratch my head is that the parade is going in both directions on St. Charles. On the contemporary parade route, Rex goes down the lake side of St. Charles, between Louisiana and Jackson, so they can toast at the Story home. The trucks that follow come down the river side for those blocks. Still, both sides go in the same direction. This looks like the float in the foreground is going uptown, will turn around somewhere, and then head back downtown.

But those are minor details in the Grand Scheme of Things. After all, parades are only a couple of weeks away!

Posted by YatPundit at 1:47 PM | TrackBack

January 9, 2008

Streetcars, Regulations, and Carnival

After the very-successful ride of the Phunny Phorty Phellows on Monday night, a number of folks in Mid City wondered aloud (and on line) why this couldn't become a regular event, where the PPP start by City Park and end up somewhere Uptown. The short answer has three letters:

ADA

That's the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA has opened many, many doors to disabled folks that would never have been accessible to them without direct legislative help. It's complicated our streetcar lines a bit, though. Here's how it works:

St. Charles - The St. Charles line, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The strict interpretation of this designation is that the line must be preserved in the state it was when it was listed, in 1971. That means the route is from Carondelet and Canal Streets to S. Carrollton and S. Claiborne Avenues. The 35 900-series Perley A. Thomas streetcars that were operating in 1971 have been preserved and continue to operate on the line. NORTA (and NOPSI before them) is charged with making sure the line and the streetcars stay in good shape and operating.

ADA mandates that public transit be handicap-accessible, but this conflicts with the basic design of the 900s. They were built in 1923-1924, and wheelchair access wasn't an issue then. NORTA just can't cut holes in the sides of these vintage streetcars, so the line is exempt from the requirements of ADA.

Riverfront - The original Riverfront line opened in 1988, prior to ADA. It used three 900-series streetcars rescued from other places in the country after the Canal line was converted to bus operations in 1964. The line also used two Melbourne W2 cars that have center-opening doors. The stops on Riverfront are raised platforms, so a rider in a wheelchair could go up the ramp and board one of the Melbourne cars. When the line was re-worked in 1997, it was expanded to double-track and converted from standard (railroad) gauge to wide gauge. The changes were so significant that the line came under the ADA microscope. ADA activists were not satisfied with every other streetcar on the line being handicapped-accessible and insisted that all cars be in compliance. That meant the vintage 900s could not be used. NORTA decided to design a new class of arch roof streetcars. The 400-series Riverfront streetcars look very much like their green cousins, but they're equipped with wheelchair lifts.

Canal - The 2000-series Von Dullen cars also have wheelchair lifts on both sides, making them fully ADA-compliant.

The storm disrupted regular streetcar operations. Because of the severe damage to the ADA-compliant streetcars in the NORTA fleet, there's just no way to offer proper service until the 400s and 2000s are rebuilt. ADA isn't the only thing in suspended animation at the moment. Since the wiring and track on St. Charles were damaged by the storm, the 900s couldn't return to service on the historic line immediately. NORTA received approval to run the 900s on the Canal line, where the infrastructure was essentially intact in spite of the flooding in Mid City. So, for the last two years, the streetcars have been operating in an environment of regulartory anarchy.

NORTA anticipates that the the Von Dullens will be back on Canal this summer. When that happens, the regulatory limbo that currently exists goes away and the pre-storm rules have to return. That means green streetcars on St. Charles, red ones everywhere else. Last Monday's PPP ride can't happen under the pre-storm rules. Under those rules, the 900s that the PPP boarded at Beauregard Circle can't operate on "revenue runs" off the St. Charles line. They're not ADA-compliant, and the Canal line must maintain that compliance.

The 400-series Riverfront cars have wheelchair lifts, so they can operate on revenue runs on Canal. When they get to Carondelet and St. Charles, however, they run into a problem. The 400s didn't operate on the St. Charles line in 1971, so they're not on the NRHP list. If NORTA operates a 400 on St. Charles for money, the line would lose its ADA exemption. That would create a situation similar to what happened on Riverfront, and the 35 vintage 900s would no longer be able to operate on the line.

So, even though there now are track and electrical connections between the three streetcar lines, that connection between Canal and St. Charles exists solely for the purpose of streetcar maintenance. Once the Von Dullens return home to Canal Street, the 900s will go back to their barn on Willow St. The red cars will be able to switch onto St. Charles to return back to the shop at Carrollton Station, but they can't do it for a buck

.

I have a modest proposal for the people of Mid City: If the Phunny Phorty Phellows decide to return to their traditional Uptown ride next year on Twelfth Night, charter a 400-series car and have one of your own! My guess is that the PPP will consider imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery. They're folks who like streetcars and like Mid City. Even if the party run was just from Beauregard Circle to the Canal barn, it would return some of the "neighborhood" feel of Carnival back to the area. The days of true "neighborhood" parades are long gone, as NOPD and City Hall have jammed almost every krewe into Uptown routes. Endymion still gets a pass on this, but Endymion is so huge that it has a life of its own. A Twelfth Night streetcar run on Carrollton and Canal would be something fun for everyone in Mid City, and we at CanalStreetCar (dot com) would gladly work with y'all to make it happen.

Posted by YatPundit at 9:36 AM | TrackBack

January 2, 2008

Feature Photo: But You Should See The Other Guy!

When driving an automobile in New Orleans, the last thing you want to do is get in a wreck with one of our streetcars. You're going to lose. There's no ifs, ands or buts about that, you're going to lose. This is a shot of 910 at Carrollton Station, being repaired after being involved in an accident. The front bumper has been removed to be rebuilt.

The most common auto-versus-streetcar accident that happens is when a driver doesn't look behind them when turning into the neutral ground. It's not something we do in other parts of town, because you don't expect something to come at you from the middle of the neutral ground on, say, Elysian Fields or Napoleon Avenues. Thing is, on Canal Street and St. Charles Ave., that's exactly what might happen. NORTA put out reminder signs weeks ahead of the return of the St. Charles line, to remind uptown drivers that their streetcars are back and to look out for them.

I've never thought about the legal morass that a streetcar accident must be until just now. I've actually been on a NOPSI bus that was involved in a minor traffic accident, and even that was a paperwork nightmare for the bus driver. In the case of streetcar-versus-auto accidents, the odds are more likely that the auto driver is going to be at fault and will be cited. I don't know if lthe average auto insurance policy can even begin to cover the damage one of these wrecks can cause to a streetcar. And we're not even talking about the damage to the auto yet. When there's enough damage to a streetcar that it's got to go back to the shop, you should see the other guy! We don't have a good photo of a modern accident (if anyone's got one, please share it with us), but one of my favorite photos from my book, which ran as a Feature Photo here in 2004, is "Never Argue With A Streetcar," from 1914.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Posted by YatPundit at 9:32 AM | TrackBack

December 24, 2007

Feature Photo: Christmas Twofer!

Von Dullen 2001, the CKD/Tatra test car, and 963, all on Canal Street at Christmastime.

The prototype Von Dullen car, 2001, on the street in December, 2000. NORTA was evaluating PCC-style trucks from CKD/Tatra, and the Czech company sent over a streetcar to test. Earl Hampton caught 2001 and the CKD car on Canal Street and got this photo right as 963 is beginning an outbound run on the St. Charles line.

Merry Christmas!

Posted by YatPundit at 12:39 PM | TrackBack

Feature Photo: Carrollton and Claiborne, 1958

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We're not all the way to this point yet, but it's the ultimate goal of rebuilding the St. Charles line--the terminal at S. Carrollton and S. Claiborne Avenues. This 1958 photo, from the collection of Mr. Irwin From, shows Perley A. Thomas streetcars 967 and 908 at the end of the line, ready to begin the inbound run, and 927 is approaching the terminal, concluding her outbound run.

When belt service on St. Charles and Tulane was discontinued, the St. Charles line took on its present configuration, which is point-to-loop. Streetcars start out here, at Carrollton and Claiborne and go down Carrollton to St. Charles. They turn at the "Riverbend" onto St. Charles and head down to Lee Circle. Further down from Lee Circle, St. Charles is one-way going outbound, so the streetcar goes around Robert Edward and then one block up Howard Avenue, turning right onto Carondelet. The line continues inbound to Canal on Carondelet, which is "Stop #1." From here, a new run begins, looping round one block on Canal St., turning onto St. Charles Avenue, running up St. Charles to Carrollton, then Carrollton back to Claiborne.

Yesterday was a red-letter day for NORTA and the St. Charles line. The hard work of Mr. Wil Mullet and his crews in the rail department, along with NORTA management's ability to re-hire a number of the streetcar operators displaced by the storm paid off. The St. Charles line has extended operations to the Riverbend district, so the line now runs the entire length of the city's most famous avenue.

That leaves just one section of the line left to complete, S. Carrollton Avenue to the terminal. The overhead wire is almost complete, but this segment won't go back operational until the spring. NORTA and Entergy are doing upgrades to the power substation at Willow and Dublin, next to Carrollton Station. Once those electrical upgrades are complete, the St. Charles, Riverfront, and Canal lines will once again be fully up and running.

This photo, from 1958, shows the old wooden light poles supporting the overhead wire for the streetcars. You can also see the trolley buses on the Tulane line on the street. After the storm, a trolley bus manufacturer offered to work with NORTA to replace some of the diesel buses with electric ones, but the proposal hasn't gone any further. I don't know what the circumstances are on that, though. My guess is that, like many other people working to bring New Orleans back, NORTA staff just haven't had the time to work on such things. Many city services, from transit to housing to the libraries, have lost employees because they were unable to return. In some cases, older folks took one look at the mess they came back to, became overwhelmed, and retired right then and there. That leaves those working to keep things running even more overwhelmed, to the point where ideas and suggestions that make sense to armchair quarterbacks in other parts of the country end up on the shelf for a while.

We at NOSRA and CanalStreetCar (dot com) would like to express our appreciation to the Commissioners, management, and staff of NORTA, and wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Posted by YatPundit at 10:56 AM | TrackBack

December 10, 2007

Feature Photo: Ford, Bacon, & Davis Streetcars on Carrollton

Two Ford, Bacon & Davis streetcars pass each other on S. Carrollton Avenue at Willow Street in 1901. This car is still configured as it was delivered: open vestibule, Lord Baltimore truck. Car #197 is one of the 70 FB&D cars built by the American Car Company.

The New Orleans & Carrollton Railroad Company (NO&CRR) built two new facilities upon electrification in 1893. One was a power station at Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas (later to be come the NOPSI Training Facility), and the barn and shops of Carrollton station, at Dublin and Willow Streets. Carrollton Station was one block into the neighborhood from the location of this photo.

At this time, a small stand had been constructed at Carrollton and Willow. Car 197 is blocking the view of the stand in this photo, but you can see it in a sequence of photos on the NOSRA website.

Posted by YatPundit at 10:21 AM | TrackBack

December 3, 2007

Streetcar Update...

St. Charles: The weather has been pretty good, so things are moving along in terms of the power upgrade. Riverbend by Christmas is still a real possibility. The electric wire has been re-run up Carrollton to Jeanette (the back of the barn). Approximately half of the 900s are in service daily, on all three lines. Transfers at Napoleon from streetcar to bus and vice versa appear to be going smoothly.

The 900s are being housed at the SIS at Randolph. Two of them are at Carrollton, though, undergoing repair work for streetcar-versus-auto collisions. Both cars sustained a bit of damage, but it's one of those "you should have seen the other guy" situations.

Canal: The Von Dullen cars are being worked through the paint shop at Carrollton. All the 2000-series cars except for 2023 are at Carrolton, being cleaned, stripped, and repainted. There have been a number of issues with getting the Von Dullens back on the street. For some critical parts, there was a one-year lead time to ramp up fabrication. NORTA had spares, but not enough to rebuild the entire fleet. Additionally, problems with the 2000's propulsion system are being addressed in the rebuild. NORTA is looking at Tatra propulsion now for the 2000s, with the units being built by Brookville.. These delays have pushed back the return of the 2000s until some time next summer.

Von Dullen 2023 is up at Brookville. NORTA sent it there immediately after the storm. There's been some talk that all the work on the Von Dullens would be done at Brookville, and it appears to have come up once again this weekend at the APTA meeting in Tampa. While Brookville will certainly be involved in the work, it's not likely they'll do all of the re-bulid. If they were going to send the cars north, it's not likely they would have re-painted them until after they came back. So, why is 2023 at Brookville? Because they're experts on those trucks and propulsion. It's just like when you get in a auto accident and you take your car to a body shop. The surface damage might not look so bad, but a little digging can reveal much more serious problems. It was a very prudent move on part of NORTA to get 2023 (as well as one of the 400-series cars) up to Brookville so they could start looking them over.

Posted by YatPundit at 8:11 AM | TrackBack

November 11, 2007

First Revenue Run - Videos

921 passing Eighth Street:

921 leaving Napoleon and St. Charles Avenues for the inbound leg of the run:

Posted by YatPundit at 10:16 PM | TrackBack

Feature Photo: The first revenue run on St. Charles Avenue

Perley A. Thomas streetcar 921 arrives at St. Charles and Napoleon Avenues, completing the outbound leg of the first revenue run of the St. Charles line since the storm. 921 left Canal Station around 0515CST on Sunday morning, 11-November-2007.

The St. Charles line has been in service since 1831. The storm caused the line's longest service outage, having blown down a significant portion of the overhead wiring and damaging the track. On Saturday, 10-Nov-2007, NORTA ran a three streetcar "parade" to welcome back the line, and revenue service began today.

It's impossible to describe just how important having the 900s back running on St. Charles is to the morale of the city of New Orleans. About the only thing that would create this level of excitement would be a Super Bowl win by Da Saints.

Posted by YatPundit at 9:57 PM | TrackBack

The St. Charles Line Returns!

The Warren Easton Senior High School Marching Band led off a 3-streetcar opening run of the St. Charles line on Saturday afternoon. Their post-storm uniforms look fantastic!

900 led off the three streetcars.

Perley A. Thomas streetcar 915

The ad sign on the streetcars. You gotta love these graphics guys, they go to clipart.com or something, but they never find arched roof cars in all that stock artwork.

Posted by YatPundit at 8:33 PM | TrackBack

October 8, 2007

Feature Photo: 866 on Tulane

clicky image for larger version

Peley A. Thomas streetcar 866, on Tulane at S. Carrollton Avenue. The direction and roll sign indicate that 866 is running on the Tulane Belt line. The railroad grade crossing gates and the switch tower in the neutral ground are for the tracks leading into the Illinois Central's Union Station at Loyola Avenue. There was a small station at Carrollton Avenue so Uptown passengers could board or leave trains without having to go all the way downtown. (Union Station was torn down in the 1950s to make way for the Union Passenger Terminal complex.) NOPSI 866 ran on various lines in the city, including Canal and St. Charles, until the Canal line's discontinuance in 1964, when it was scrapped.

The stadium in the background is Pelican Stadium, home of the New Orleans Pelicans from 1915 to 1957, when it was demolished. The Pelicans played two seasons at Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park, before the team shut down in 1959. The "Pelicans" name was used again briefly in the 1970s, when the city had a AAA team playing in Da Dome, but that venture failed. The current AAA team for the city is the New Orleans Zephyrs. They kept that name when the team moved from Denver. Because the wooden roller coaster at Pontchartrain Beach was named the "Zephyr," the name stuck.

Pelican Stadium was also home to the "New Orleans Black Pelicans" of the Negro League. For more information on baseball in New Orleans, check out www.neworleansbaseball.com, by S. Derby Gisclair, who has written two books for Arcadia on the subject. (Arcadia was my publisher for the Canal streetcar book.)

This part of New Orleans was still referred to as "back of town" by many, as Mid-City was still a developing neighborhood. Now, Mid-City is a neighborhood in recovery, still working through the aftermath of the storm.

Posted by Edward Branley at 8:52 AM | TrackBack

October 3, 2007

Updates...

John DeFraites reports that the wiring crew was working at S. Carrollton and Jeanette last night (2-Oct). Only seven blocks to go to Claiborne for the wiring!

Posted by Edward Branley at 10:15 AM | TrackBack

September 27, 2007

Turning the power back on...

RTA is turning on the 600VDC power for the St. Charles Line this week. The repairs to the overhead wiring on St. Charles from Lee Circle to Napoleon Avenue are complete, and now they've flipped the "on" switch. They'll test the wiring and make sure all is well, and soon we'll see the 900s extending their run form Lee Circle all tye way to Napoleon.

For the time being, the 900s will continue to be based out of the Canal barn, since the repairs all the way to Willow/Jeanette Streets aren't yet complete.

Earl's on the lookout for test runs. Anybody want to start a pool on which car will be first? It's usually 930.

Posted by YatPundit at 8:43 AM | TrackBack

September 16, 2007

Why things aren't moving along quickly...

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.

Posted by YatPundit at 4:42 PM | TrackBack

January 1, 2006

Feature Photo: 426 on St. Charles, Late 1910s

One of the "original" Perley A. Thomas streetcars, 426 was one of fifty streetcars purchased by the New Orleans Railway and Light Company for operations on the St. Charles and Tulane Belts, as well as the Jackson line. These streetcars were acquired from the Southern Car Company in St. Louis, MO. The NORy&L company liked the design of the original 400-series because it was "semi-convertible." This meant the cars could be converted from being fully closed to partially open-air by raising the thirteen windows on either side. The design was so well-received by the New Orleans transit authorities that Perley Thomas was able to leave Southern Car and start his own company, from which he sold the 800- and 900-series streetcars to NOPSI.

Like the 800s and 900s, the 400-series was designed for two-man operation, with a motorman in the front and a conductor in the rear. Passengers boarded in the rear, paid their fare to the conductor, then exited from the front.

This photo, shot by John Teunisson on St. Charles Avenue, shows 426 moving away from the photographer, on the uptown track. Note the "people catcher" that is raised on the end closest to the photographer, not in use because that end is the "back" of the streetcar at the moment.

The 400-series streetcars remained in service on the St. Charles and Tulane Belts until 1947, when they were replaced by the 800- and 900-series Perley A. Thomas streetcars.

Posted by YatPundit at 9:45 PM | TrackBack

December 7, 2005

DeVille's Congressional Testimony

RTA General Manager William DeVille testified before a House subcommittee for (among other things) Transit on 27-October-2005. His update on RTA's situation is a good one. The full text of his testimony is here.

This section caught my eye:

On a good note, there was little damage to the famous St. Charles Streetcar line other than to the overhead catenary system. Further good news is that FTA had already approved an extensive rehabilitation project for the St. Charles overhead electrical system and a contractor was preparing to get started when the storm hit. We are reevaluating the construction costs of the project and we are pushing to get the program underway as soon as possible while the system is closed. Construction on this project now should be far easier and may cost less than originally planned because there is no active service to work around. However, there is additional work required as the storm did more damage than the original work scope envisioned.

If a contractor was ready to get started on catenary work on St. Charles Avenue anyway, hopefully that will speed up a return of the 900s to the streets.

Posted by YatPundit at 3:36 PM | TrackBack

December 5, 2005

Feature Photo - Southport Shuttle, 1929.

With Skoda Electric proposing to help the city's transit system and economy if RTA will consider using trolley buses, let's go back to the beginning of electric bus operations in New Orleans. One of the first "trackless trolleys" to run in New Orleans passes Mater Delorosa church on S. Carrollton Avenue in December of 1929. The line was the "Southport Shuttle," which ran from Oak Street, then turned onto S. Carrollton Avenue. Electric bus service was expanded in the 1940s, as New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (NOPSI) phased out streetcar lines. The electric buses were a bit of a compromise, using the trolley wires from the streetcars, but with brand-new buses instead of the older streetcars.

The original electric buses were housed at Carrollton Station. When the bus system expanded, they were also stationed at Arabella Station on Magazine Street (this station is now the site of Uptown's Whole Foods Grocery store).

Posted by YatPundit at 12:08 PM | TrackBack

November 22, 2005

The 900s on Canal - Dangerous Precedent...

Perley A. Thomas Streetcar 914 on Canal Street (operating on the West End line)

The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) finds itself in a curious dilemma post-Katrina. Of the three streetcar lines in the city, two have minimal track/catenary damage but major streetcar damage. The third, the St. Charles line, has no streetcar damage whatsoever and serious track/catenary damage. Under most circumstances, the solution would be pretty simple: move the streetcars that run on St. Charles over to Canal Street and resume operations on Canal and on Riverfront.

There's one small catch to this plan: by law, the 900-series Perley A. Thomas streetcars that operate on St. Charles Avenue can't be moved from that line. Both the streetcars and the line itself are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Briefly, some background: The company operating streetcars in New Orleans from 1922 to 1983 was New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (a division of the company that later became Entergy). In 1964, NOPSI, with approval from city government, discontinued streetcar operations on Canal Street, in favor of bus service. The deal was a compromise of sorts. NOPSI wanted to discontinue streetcars altogether, but preservationists, historians, and the residents of Uptown howled. The St. Charles Line is the oldest operating streetcar line in the country, and the citizens didn't want to lose it. Canal Street, on the other hand, is the transit hub of the city and the main street of downtown. Its streetcar right-of-way was ugly, unkept, and NOPSI pitched a serious marketing campaign to residents in Lakeview and Gentilly to entice them into accepting air-conditioned buses over the semi-convertible streetcars. In typical New Orleans fashion, a citizens group formed to try to save the Canal line, but it was too little, too late.

Preservationists got their compromise, and on May 31, 1964, the last streetcar to operate on Canal for almost forty years turned onto a preserved St. Charles line. Streetcar enthusiasts and uptown residents alike didn't trust NOPSI at all, and with good cause, so they continued to take steps to assure the continued preservation of the St. Charles line. Congress helped out in 1966 by creating the National Register, and by 1971, the St. Charles line was added to the Register.

A quick glance at the regulations governing the National Register reveal that it's set up to deal more with physical buildings, or neighborhoods of historic significance rather than moving property. The sections that deal with changes and revisions, as well as removal of properties from the NR appear to be written with the idea that, once a property is on the NR, very extraordinary circumstances have to happen for changes to be made.

The closest provision in the regulations I can find that's appropriate to post-Katrina New Orleans is the section on moving property:

(1) Properties listed in the National Register should be moved only when there is no feasible alternative for preservation. When a property is moved, every effort should be made to reestablish its historic orientation, immediate setting, and general environment.

While I understand and appreciate the sentiment involved with wanting to get the streetcars back up and running, we should all approach re-location of 900-series operation with great caution. For openers, the current situation doesn't fit the criteria set forth by the NR for changing location. The St. Charles line will indeed be repaired and restored to its pre-Katrina operations. It's not like St. Charles is vanishing and there's no place for the 900s to go.

It's important to remember that Canal Street is not a heritage trolley line. It's a major urban transit line. The 2000-series Von Dullen cars, in spite of their outward similarities to the 900-series cars, are modern LRVs. They're designed to handle the high volume of riders on Canal Street. They're ADA-compliant, with wheelchair lifts on both sides. In short, they're not your grandfather's streetcars.

The other issue with changing anything having to do with the St. Charles line is the notion of trust. There was a time when NOPSI couldn't be trusted to look out for the best interests of the city. They were a for-profit company, heavily regulated, and always at odds with city government. Replacing their management of transit with RTA was one of the best moves the city/state ever did. We should not forget that history, however. One of the reasons preservationists in the late 1960s took steps to lock the St. Charles line into stone via the NR was to make sure someone thirty or forty years down wouldn't mess with the character of the line. I personally believe that RTA's goals and motives are more than in the best interests of the city and the streetcars, but then again, a lot of people in Rome thought naming Caesar dictator was a good idea at first, too.

So, what to do? I suggest the following:

1. RTA should obtain a waiver from the NPS to operate the 900s on the Riverfront line. Riverfront was envisioned in the mid-80s as a tourist attraction. The original idea was to have a small excursion line that would make it easy for conventioneers attending shows in the Morial Convention Center to get to the French Quarter. In fact, until the Canal streetcars returned, Riverfront was not even integrated into the RTA system. You had to pay a separate fare to ride the 400-series cars, and no transfers were available. In spite of the overwhelming popularity of the Riverfront line and its subsequent expansion, the line's mission never changed. It's all about tourists. It will be a lot easier to obtain waivers from both the NPS and the DoJ to operate the 900s on Riverfront. Since disabled folks don't rely on Riverfront as essential transportation, RTA won't have to go another fifteen rounds with the DoJ over ADA-compliance.

2. RTA should acquire some double-ended PCC cars to restore operations on Canal until the Von Dullen cars can be repaired. Bus service on Canal will have to continue until a majority of the 2000-series are complete, but streetcars of any kind would be good as a tourism promotion. Riding a streetcar of any design from the CBD to Mid-City and City Park would be more fun than a bus. Perhaps a trolley museum or two could loan a couple to RTA.

3. RTA should be thinking out of the box, just like the rest of New Orleans. With all the re-building and re-thinking that's going on in New Orleans, expansion of streetcar use should be always be considered. The guys at Carrollton Station spent most of last year re-building car #29, the last Ford, Bacon & Davis single-truck streetcar. It wouldn't be that hard for them to build new replicas of that model. Single-truck streetcars wound through a lot of neighborhoods in the city until the 1930s. They're small and easily to maneuver. What better time to rip up streets to lay down streetcar track than when nobody's living there anyway? This is an idea off the top of my head while sitting here, but it's an example of the sort of brainstorming everyone should be doing.

Posted by YatPundit at 3:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 27, 2005

Carrollton Station

One of the oldest streetcar barns in the country, Carrollton Station on Willow Street fared the storm pretty well:

The station, pretty much buttoned up. With those big doors pulled down and no flood waters in the Uptown area, the historic Perley Thomas 900-series streetcars were well protected from the storm. The wind was pretty intense in this area, though. Several of the big, roll-down doors on the back (Jeannette St.) side of the station were blown inward, off of their tracks.

A quick peek inside the station, before a security guard shooed me away. Yes, that's a San Francisco cable car in the barn. RTA got that car in exchange for a Perley Thomas car that was sent out to Market Street Railway, in a trade that's up there with the Cubs giving up Greg Maddux in terms of lop-sided.

Posted by YatPundit at 12:07 AM | TrackBack

October 26, 2005

St. Charles Avenue

The situation on the St. Charles Line is opposite that of Canal Street. On Canal, the line is pretty much OK, with the neutral ground needing some cleaning, track clearing, and minor electrical work. The "Red Ladies" are a mess, though, since most of them got flooded.

On St. Charles, the Carrollton Station car barn protected the 80+ year old 900-series streetcars, but the high winds of the storm caused a good bit of damage on the line itself.

St. Charles Avenue at Amelia Street. (Rice fans will remember Amelia Street as the home of one of the branches of the Mayfair family from Anne's "witch" novels.) This tree hanging on the trolley wires is one of the more dramatic examples of the damage along the line.

A few blocks up the street. This scene is typical of most of the line--debris and dirt on the tracks, wires down here and there, trees and branches blocking the poles.

pre-Katrina track repairs at St. Charles and Elenore have been abandoned for the time being.

One small sign of the return to normalcy--the Roman Candy wagon, out on the street and open for business.

Posted by YatPundit at 11:55 PM | TrackBack