RTA has not returned to pre-Katrina, levels fewer streetcars and buses
8th September 2014 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
On the Ninth Anniversary of Katrina, Ride New Orleans’ Rachel Heiligman notes that “just 36% of the pre-Katrina service offered by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) in 2005 had been restored – although 86% of New Orleans’ population had returned to the city”.
She continued, “NORTA’s fleet had 301 buses in operation in 2004. In 2012, there were only 79 buses in operation. Service reductions have been worst in areas where transit service is needed most: low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and areas where fewer people have their own cars. In 2012, NORTA had a $4.3 million deficit. In 2013, the agency’s approved budget included a $12 million deficit. Between 2014 and 201, the projected deficit is anticipated to be between $16 and $20 million every year. NORTA’s operating expenses are the highest among comparison markets, costing $168 per vehicle revenue hour. In contrast, in the early 2000s, NORTA’s operating expenses ranged from $116 – $124.”
Moreover, she added, RTA’s recent triumph, for the first time in three years, the historic Green streetcars began to run nearly the entire Carrollton-St. Charles Ave. route, only disguises that “only 77% of streetcar trips have been restored. In 2005, 28 percent of NORTA’s bus and streetcar lines ran at a high frequency, providing service every 15 minutes, and another 52 percent provided moderately frequent service, every 15 to 30 minutes. By 2012, only nine percent ran at a high frequency and 15% at moderate frequency.”
In fact, even with the restoration of the Uptown Streetcar, a gap in the tracks remain, stopping New Orleanians from having an East-West route that would go from Mid-City to the Bywater, at least when the new St. Claude “Desire” track is completed.
Near the Amtrak/Greyhound bus station on Howard Ave., there is a gap on Howard Avenue where the feeder tracks to the St. Charles Ave. Streetcar Line end (just off the turn of the Streetcar onto Carrollton in the CBD) and the feeder tracks for the Loyola line begin (those that extend past the boarding station at the Amtrak Train Station). The Loyola lines’s tracks terminate mere feet before the St. Charles’ tracks.
In other words, these two streetcar lines that are separated by only two blocks on the same street, do not connect. Less than 700 feet would allow the two to run streetcars on both, and connect to bus services at the city’s train and Greyhound station.
“I’ve never understood why they could not just have linked the two,” Orleans Councilwoman At-Large Stacy Head explained with exasperation.
In other words, two streetcar lines who lay within two blocks of one another on the same street could provide continuous transport options. “Linking the Loyola / UPT streetcar line to the St. Charles streetcar line along Howard Avenue makes all of the sense in the world,” explained Ride New Orleans’ Rachel Heiligman. “This easy connection would allow for greatly enhanced streetcar connectivity with new streetcar routes providing expanded access between uptown, downtown and CBD destinations. The RTA is aware of the opportunity and has included this linkage in their streetcar master plan and recent funding requests to the U.S. Department of Transportation. At this point, it’s just a matter of the RTA finding the funding to make the connection happen.”
It’s one of the absurdities that Ride New Orleans has argued against in its recent, short history as the leading advocates of public transport in the city. Another has been the strange circumstance that a city as large as New Orleans lacks a central place where passengers can board and transfer between buses.
As Heiligman noted in an interview with The Louisiana Weekly, “In New Orleans, there are several transit hubs across the city, but the CBD transit hub is our largest and most important one. That’s because our regional transit system is designed so that all passengers – whether travelling from New Orleans East, Metairie, Avondale or Algiers – end their trips in the CBD. If the CBD is not their final destination, riders must transfer to another bus or streetcar line to complete their trip.
These transfers take place at one of several street corners at or near the intersection of Elk Place and Tulane Avenue where more than twenty Regional Transit Authority, Jefferson Transit and streetcar lines come together. According to RTA estimates, between 5,000 and 7,000 transit riders pass through this intersection on a daily basis.”
“The residents and visitors transferring at this point have such limited seating options – 30 seats altogether – that sidewalks quickly become overcrowded. With limited basic infrastructure serving thousands of people, the area is chaotic. Potential shoppers and commercial tenants avoid the area, in turn creating a challenging environment for businesses and property owners to operate. Vacancy and blight are common along the commercial corridors that line the busy transit stops.”
As for some solutions, she argued, “In the short-term, Ride New Orleans is calling on the City and RTA to invest in basic improvements at the existing CBD Transit Hub – like additional seating, shade structures, lighting and transit system maps and schedules that are so desperately needed to ease riders’ commutes.”
“We are also calling for the consolidation of the CBD Transit Hub into a true transit center as a long-term solution. We must re-imagine our central transit hub as more than just a utilitarian place for buses and passengers, and recognize its potential to serve as a gateway into the surrounding community through which many New Orleanians and visitors pass. We believe a transit center could serve as a central location for all transportation-related activities including tourist charter buses, future bike share and car share facilities, a park-n-ride, easy connections to Amtrak and inter-city bus lines like Greyhound and Megabus and much, much more. It could be co-located with office and / or retail facilities and developed as a public-private partnership similar to recent investments in transit hubs that we’ve seen developed in Lafayette, LA, Little Rock, AK and Detroit, MI.”
One place that could be is right beside where those two streetcar lines remain unlinked. Howard Ave. and the Greyhound Bus Terminal/Train Station remains just one option for a new New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) hub. “There are many advantages to making the Union Passenger Terminal New Orleans’ central transit hub. The UPT is striking building that can accommodate large crowds, provide retail amenities, indoor waiting areas and public restrooms and its biggest advantage is that the building already exists. It also offers the ability to co-locate our regional public transit network with intercity bus and passenger rail services and provides easy access to taxicabs as well. However, the UPT is not the most central location in the CBD, lying at the very edge of the business district. Relocating the transit hub to this location would likely create the need for additional transfers for our region’s many bus riders to reach their destination.”
Noting that Veolia Transport also began work this month on the St. Claude “Desire” Streetcar extension to Press Street, she was hopeful that the line might be extended beyond, further into the Bywater. “The RTA successfully completed the first phase of the project along Loyola Avenue which was funded by a previous TIGER grant. Now, the agency is gearing up to build the second phase of that project along N. Rampart Street and St. Claude Avenue to Elysian Fields Avenue with local funds. By investing in a third phase of the project, the federal government could support the success of their initial investment and improve local and regional connectivity to underserved neighborhoods.”
Veolia has a wish list of streetcar connectivity which includes extending lines on St. Claude Avenue from Press Street to Poland Avenue by 2 miles for $62 million, then from Poland Avenue to Refinery Road by another11.9 miles for $226.6 million. A feeder line would go down Elysian Fields Avenue from St. Claude Avenue to Riverfront Line for 1.2 miles for $37.2 million. Eventually it would extending down Elysian Fields Avenue from St. Claude Avenue to UNO for the entire 8.6 miles for another $266.6 million.
The Uptown route would also continue down South Carrollton Avenue from Canal Street to South Claiborne Avenue for 3.6 miles at $120 million cost, and the Loyola Avenue on Howard Avenue to Convention Center Boulevard and Riverfront Line would join at 4.4 miles for $130 million. Lastly, RTA would like to see a link from on Poydras Street from South Claiborne Avenue to Loyola Avenue at 1.8 miles for $62 million. No funds, though, are currently allocated for any of the above.
Noting these disparities fits into the role of Ride NOLA, as Heiligman explained. “Ride New Orleans mission is to enhance quality of life in the New Orleans region by advocating and organizing for safe, convenient and affordable transportation choices. We believe that alternative transportation modes including walking, biking and public transit, are critical to the creation of vibrant, healthy and sustainable neighborhoods that encourage economic opportunities for all residents.”
This article originally published in the September 8, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
