Mass Transit in New Orleans

[dan326]

Push revived for N.O. to B.R. train

Amtrak does test run; La. awaits numbers

Article from NOLA

That would be a good idea. I know Fort Worth and Dallas have an Amtrak train between them and if they were like the DART then they would be a good investment.

[rolltide35401]

Not necessarily related to current plans, but over the last week I have complied an article on Wikipedia on the long-gone Mississippi Aerial River Transit. I would have loved to cross the Mississippi on this thing, skyline views must have been amazing! Did any of you locals ride on this during the '84 fair?

MART article on Wiki

[NCB]

Not necessarily related to current plans, but over the last week I have complied an article on Wikipedia on the long-gone Mississippi Aerial River Transit. I would have loved to cross the Mississippi on this thing, skyline views must have been amazing! Did any of you locals ride on this during the '84 fair?

It was "around" when I was a young kid and I remember seeing the line towers being demolished, but I never rode it. As you noted in the article, ridership was far below expectations through its short run, then the thing just sat there unused for many years, and it was completely demolished in '94. But I also would have loved to have crossed the Mississippi in one of those gondolas, especially now with my camera. Can you imagine the views in every direction!

And BTW, rolltide, great job on the article! You put together some great information, and I love the picture you found. I haven't seen any extensive info or pictures relating to the old MART system for quite some time, until now.

[dimebag1980]

What was it, a tram??

[Puddinhead]

I rode it...and I have to tell you it was pretty unnerving...LOL. And I'm not particularly afraid of heights anymore than the next guy, seeing as how I climb caged ladders to open platforms atop 150'+ towers here in the refinery from time to time. But these pod-styled "cars" hung down under a cable like seats on a ski lift. The cable was stretched between two huge towers on either bank of the River; "stretched" may be a misnomer, as there was (to me) an amazing amount of sag in the cable, although considering it's length completely across the width of the Mississippi I guess it's about what you'd have to expect if you stopped to think about it. You were roughly at the height of the adjacent bridge, although as I just said your height about the water varied quite a bit. At the mid-river point you were at your lowest and really felt like you were dangling out in the middle of space with just the tiniest (and seemingly fragile) connection to the cable. Especially nerve-racking when the winds were just below the threshold at which they'd shut it down...you just "knew" that the "hook" was going to slip right off the cable when the car started swinging back and forth...LOL. Also interesting at night.

Edited October 24, 2006 by Puddinhead

[NCB]

What was it, a tram??

It was a gondola lift system that would lift you way up to two very large towers on either side, and would then bring you across the river in gondola cars hanging below a wire.

[dimebag1980]

It was a gondola lift system that would lift you way up to two very large towers on either side, and would then bring you across the river in gondola cars hanging below a wire.

Cool!

[rolltide35401]

And BTW, rolltide, great job on the article! You put together some great information, and I love the picture you found. I haven't seen any extensive info or pictures relating to the old MART system for quite some time, until now.

Thanks NCB! I hadn't thought about it in years until I came across an article on its demolition when researching never-built buildings for the city. I saw nothing out there on the subject, so decided to do something about it

Cool that you actually rode the thing Puddinhead. Dangling like a worm on a hook over the river would indeed be very unnerving!

Edited October 25, 2006 by rolltide35401

[elise]

I was just wondering... is there any new info on the commuter rail idea?

[NCB]

I was just wondering... is there any new info on the commuter rail idea?

The only thing seriously being planned right now is the idea of a commuter rail line, in some fashion, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. There have been many different ideas brought up, but the most viable would probably be the idea of having an Amtrack train connecting the two cities.

[JPKneworleans]

Looks like the rewiring of the streetcar line has begun in earnest right past Napoleon where the first streetcar substation is. The wiring starts in front of the Orleans Club (at Valence?) and is almost to Napoleon. According to the news, the downtown-Napoleon segment should be up and running by summer's end.

[JPKneworleans]

Streetcar wiring from Napoleon to downtown is now complete. The streetcars should start running in the next few weeks!

[NCB]

Excellent news! That means they're about halfway done rewiring Saint Charles Ave. I would expect to see ridership on the St. Charles streetcar begin to increase quite a bit from this point forward, as there is once again a reason for locals to ride it. Every time I see the St. Charles streetcar pass in the CBD, there are only a few people riding, if any. But that's not suprising, as the streetcar only takes you to Lee Circle, and at that point most people would just rather take the bus so that they can get off only a few blocks or so from home. Looking forward to seeing that change!

[NCB]

An article in the Metro section of the Times-Picayune yesterday said that an additional 4 streetcars will soon be added to the Canal Street line, which will cut the wait time in half from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. Though it looks like the 30 minute wait time for a streetcar on the N. Carrollton spur will still continue for awhile.

Also, with the additional streetcars on Canal, the number off buses running on that line will drop from 3 to 2, and many additional bus lines connecting the CBD with New Orleans East and other neighborhoods will soon be back on line.

[JPKneworleans]

An article in the Metro section of the Times-Picayune yesterday said that an additional 4 streetcars will soon be added to the Canal Street line, which will cut the wait time in half from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. Though it looks like the 30 minute wait time for a streetcar on the N. Carrollton spur will still continue for awhile.

Also, with the additional streetcars on Canal, the number off buses running on that line will drop from 3 to 2, and many additional bus lines connecting the CBD with New Orleans East and other neighborhoods will soon be back on line.

I wonder if the streetcars are the first red ones to be rebuilt. Several months ago, an article indicated that the first red one should be ready and placed in service in May. Obviously, that did not happen.

[NCB]

^It's certainly possible. Most of the articles I've read have said that the red streetcars would return to the Canal line sometime in Summer '07; so while we're still in that timeframe, I haven't seen or heard anything new about it. I'm looking forward to seeing the red cars on Canal and the Riverfront. Seeing those green St. Charles cars pull up at the Aquarium just is still just too "weird."

[NCB]

Here's something I don't recall ever hearing anything about...

That's the current layout of the streetcar system in New Orleans. Now, why not extend the St. Charles line all the way up the the rest of S. Carrollton, so that Carrollton Ave. would have a full line running from the Mississippi River to City Park. You already have the Canal spur on N. Carollton, and if you extended the S. Carrollton line from Claiborne to Canal, you could connect it with the N. Carollton spur, and suddenly you have a streetcar loop around the CBD, Uptown, Broadmoor, and Mid-City. A streetcar line extension from Claiborne to Canal would only be about 40% longer than the N. Carollton Spur, and would be less than half as long as the Canal Street line. I guess I'm just thinking that if they have to compeltely rewire the S. Carrollton portion of the St. Charles Ave. line anyway, why not just keep going up to Canal, and connect the S. Carrollton line with the N. Carrollton spur.

Any thoughts?

I'll try to put my ideas on paper by editing the above layout.

[NCB]

Alright guys, here is my idea on paper, using only some basic photo editing. I used the above streetcar system map, and added my propoed Carrollton extension, which is the orange line.

[JPKneworleans]

There has been talk about extending the St. Charles line so that it will connect with the Canal Street line. As for the red streetcars, it was my understanding that one red streetcar would be produced every month until the entire fleet was rebuilt.

Edited July 7, 2007 by JPKneworleans

[NCB]

As for the red streetcars, it was my understanding that one red streetcar would be produced every month until the entire fleet was rebuilt.

I remember hearing that as well, now that you mention it. Do you have an idea of how large the fleet was pre-Katrina? I imagine it will take quite some time for the whole fleet to be brought back into service, though I don't know exactly how large it is/was.

[sgray]

Here's an interesting site about New Orleans street cars. I don't know how many there are but I think they were saying they would take one million dollars each to repair them. That seems excessive.

[JPKneworleans]

Here's an interesting site about New Orleans street cars. I don't know how many there are but I think they were saying they would take one million dollars each to repair them. That seems excessive.

That has been the quoted price since the beginning. From what I understand, each of them was considered a total loss.

By the way, I was in San Francisco last week, and it was nice to see one of the St. Charles streetcars on the F Line. The F Line runs vintage streetcars from all over the world. If you will recall, San Francisco gave the city an old cable car in exchange for a street car. The cable car was at Pop's Fountain in City Park prior to the storm, but I don't think it is there anymore.

[NCB]

Well, I was extremely bored this evening, so I decided to do what everyone does when they're bored...create an overlay of the New Orleans streetcar system on a Google map!

I'm sure most of you guys are more than familiar with the system, but I'll go ahead and identify the lines anyway:

Red- Riverfront line

Blue- Canal Street line

Purple- North Carrollton spur

Green- Saint Charles Avenue line

[JPKneworleans]

It sure would be nice it the contractors would get the St. Charles line restoration into high gear!

[NCB]

I haven't ridden the Saint Charles Ave. streetcar past Lafayette Square in the CBD, so I'm really not on top of the restorations going on. However, according to RTA's website, the Saint Charles line is now running up to and a few blocks beyond Napoleon Avenue Uptown. I'll be all over Uptown and the Garden District next week with my camera, so I should be able to verify that, but hopefully Derrick will be able to hook us up with some UPT info.