City of Kenner ending contract with RTA

By Michelle Liu
Contributing Writer

(Veritenews.org) — The city of Kenner is planning to end its bus service contract with the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, making the transportation agency a little less regional.

Kenner currently pays the RTA about $800,000 a year at cost to service a bus route, according to RTA CEO Lona Edwards Hankins. The transit authority recently received written notice from the city that Kenner intends to pull out of the contract, Hankins said, and the RTA will no longer service Kenner beginning Sept. 22. Jefferson Parish Transit will take over the city’s bus service.

Under the current contract, Kenner must give the RTA six months’ notice should the city wish to leave the agreement. The RTA’s governing board will soon consider reducing that timeframe to 45 days by amending the contract. Should its board agree to trim the notice period, the RTA will be able to time Kenner’s exit with the transit agency’s next regular schedule change in September.

“They’re wanting us to decouple sooner,” Hankins said in a presentation of the amendment at a board meeting Tuesday (July 23).

The move comes after Jefferson Parish began its own exit from the RTA earlier this year, spurred by the discovery that the agency had signed off on more than $1 million in payments to a construction contractor without board approval. That revelation prompted the resignation of four commissioners on the agency’s board, including all three representing Jefferson Parish, hindering agency governance for a couple of months.

The majority of RTA’s bus lines operate exclusively in New Orleans, but it also operates routes that run from the city to Jefferson Parish, along with bus service in Kenner.

RTA and Jefferson Parish officials have previously maintained that bus service on lines running from Orleans Parish into Jefferson Parish shouldn’t be interrupted as result of the withdrawal. Those routes include the airport express traveling from the New Orleans Public Library’s main branch to the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner and the route running from Tulane University to Elmwood.

Hankins told commissioners that the RTA will be having a series of meetings with Kenner to ensure a smooth transition.

“We don’t anticipate this to be an impact for the riders,” Hankins said. “We’re trying to make it as seamless as possible for the riders.”

The Kenner exit will free up two buses and two drivers for the RTA’s New Orleans lines, according to Hankins.

The RTA’s board of commissioners is expected to consider the amendment to the Kenner contract at its next monthly meeting.

This article originally published in the July 29, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.