Transit Authority to continue enhancing bus service

15th December 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Susan Buchanan
The Louisiana Weekly

You’ve probably heard the slogan “RTA is going your way,” and instead wished the bus was coming your way. Waits for buses remain long on some lines, and many riders feel the Regional Transit Authority caters to uptown residents and tourists more than others. But service has expanded across the city, new shelters have been built and ridership has risen. The RTA says it’s responded to requests for increased service, and will revise a number of bus routes and schedules early next year.

Last year’s changes to the city’s most heavily traveled line, the 94-Broad running from Washington and Broad in center city to Michoud in New Orleans East, attracted riders. “Since January 2010, we added more fixed-route service to the 94, and we extended the 60-Hayne to Delgado University for every trip, and saw ridership increase 70 percent on those lines combined,” said Dominic Moncada, spokesman for Veolia Transportation. Under a contract, Veolia Transportation, part of French company Veolia Environment, manages day-to-day transit operations.

Moncada said that extra-long, accordion buses now run on the crowded 94-Broad and 62-Morrison Express routes. And he said the RTA listened to the need for service workers and downtown partiers to get home safely. “In response to demand for public transit access for late workers, the 94-St.Claude now runs until 1:30 a.m., the 100/101-Algiers runs to 2 a.m. and the 11-Magazine to 12:30 a.m.,” he said. “And last year we added the new 100-Algiers Owl in 2010 for late night riders.”

Bus ridership should be up nearly 1.1 million this year to 7.72 million, though it’s still well below pre-Katrina levels.

Urban Studies professor John Renne, director of the University of New Orleans Transportation Institute, said “Veolia and the RTA have done a good job in growing service and ridership while some other cities have had to reduce service. The RTA, like other transit authorities, relies on funds from sales tax revenue, which has declined in many cities during tough economic times, while New Orleans—buffered by post-Katrina rebuilding—hasn’t been quite as hard hit.”

Sales taxes collected by the city in first-half 2011 totaled $78.5 million, exceeding every other six-month period since Katrina, and were only two percent less than in the same 2005 period, according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. That’s pretty good news for public transit. Sales tax revenue—from general and hotel-motel sources—provides 77% of the RTA’s operating budget while passenger fares account for 22 percent, Moncada said. The RTA’s 2011 operating budget was $71.7 million and should increase in 2012. Meanwhile, new buses have been purchased with federal recovery funds, and RTA construction money is mainly from federal grants.

The RTA operates 150 buses, along with 36 compact, paratransit vehicles for the elderly and disabled. The fleet is smaller than before Katrina, when most city buses were destroyed in flooding. “But we’ve now got one of the newest, cleanest fleets in the country,” Moncada said. “Last year, we unveiled another 103 biodiesel buses, mostly purchased with federal monies, adding to similar buses that were running. We also added five hybrid-drive, articulated or accordion buses last year, acquired with federal American Recovery and Reinvestment stimulus dollars.” The RTA hopes to procure more accordion buses.

As for demographics, most of the city’s population is back since Katrina and more residents have cars than a decade ago. The 2010 U.S. Census counted New Orleans’ population at 71 percent of its 2000 level while the greater metro area had 89 percent of its 2000 residents. New Orleans households without a vehicle fell from 27 percent in 2000 to 18 percent in 2009, according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center last summer.

The city’s busiest bus routes now are the 94-Broad; 39-Tulane; 88-St.Claude; 91-Jackson-Esplanade and 11-Magazine, Moncada said.

Proposals aired at a Nov. 9, RTA Public Hearing are expected to affect a number of lines next year. The transit authority’s plans include adding a trip to the 94-Broad line on school days so buses aren’t overloaded. The 32-Leonidas line will be extended to Winn Dixie at Chef and Desire, providing more connections for riders headed to New Orleans East.

On the 84-Galvez, a change is proposed around Poland Avenue, where the route will move to Galvez from North Miro St., which is residential. Line 84’s time table will stay the same. In September 2010, the Galvez bus was restored to the Lower Ninth Ward and an extra bus was added, so service frequency is every 35 minutes now.

The RTA plans to adjust the 62-Morrison schedule next year to factor in delays as the line’s riders continue to grow. On the 55-Elysian Fields, more time might be added to the schedule since buses are slowed by horse and buggies and other obstacles in the French Quarter. On the 5-Marigny-Bywater line, which runs to the Convention Center at Henderson now, the plan is to stop at Canal St., where riders can connect with buses and streetcars. The 10-Tchoupitoulas line is slated to move to Henderson Blvd. and run on Convention Center Blvd., with no change to its time table. Line 101 in Algiers will be extended to Federal City.

On-time rates have improved in the past year, but as many bus riders know weekend waits can be exasperating. “Bus drivers have to contend with construction, filming, bicycles, horse carriages and pedicabs at any time, and then on weekends it’s parades, second lines and other events,” Moncada said. “If a convention comes in, you might suddenly have a thousand more people downtown.” He recommends that before heading out, bus riders check service alerts on the RTA website for notices about disruptions.

According to the Nov. 9, RTA meeting minutes, city resident Lavell Depauliea, a daily transit rider, stood up and told the gathering he once waited two hours for a bus on his way to a funeral. “It was a jazz funeral,” he said, and added “the woman had time to be cremated, buried and brought back,” while he cooled his heels at the bus stop.

On the plus side, the bus system has become safer in recent years, Moncada said. City bus drivers go though repeated, rigorous training, and buses are now equipped with cameras feeding information to the RTA center. “Drivers connect dispatchers by radio and transit police respond quickly to any incidents,” he said.

As for streetcars, ridership is almost back to pre-Katrina levels, and a stretch of the Loyola line under construction from the train station to Canal St. should be open for passengers by mid 2012, Moncada said. Then work will start on the section running up Rampart St. to Elysian Fields. Because of cost overruns, funds are inadequate to extend the line from Elysian to Press St., but the RTA has applied for more federal money for that stretch.“The goal is still there to run the line on St. Claude,” Moncada said. “We’ve applied for a Tiger III grant and will hear back in early 2012.”

UNO’s Renne said unanticipated expenses and cost overruns are common in public projects and aren’t surprising on the Loyola line. But he said Veolia and the RTA need to find additional sources of funding for needed projects.

Moncada said RTA commission meetings are open to the public, and the next one is scheduled for Dec. 20 at 9:00 a.m. at 2817 Canal St. “The commissioners really have an open ear to the community and want to keep improving service, so come, bring ID, arrive a little early and submit your request,” he said. The meeting should last about two hours. “If you can’t make it because of work, the RTA can send a representative to speak to your neighborhood, church or school group,” he said.

Moncada recommends that riders check the revamped RTA website for useful, new tools. With the Trip Planner map, for instance, you can punch in your origin, departure time and destination to learn the best bus connections for a journey.

This article originally published in the December 12, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

Tags:  Augustine, RTA, transit, Veolia