New Orleans — Metairie Considers Streetcars

January 2012

The Times-Picayune reports that Metairie, a Jefferson Parish suburb just west of New Orleans along I-10 will study the feasibility of a streetcar line in the community. The Regional Planning Commission is negotiating with national consulting firm Parson Brinckerhoff to conduct a $75,000 study of a line along Veterans Memorial Boulevard.

Jefferson Parish president John Young told the Times-Picayune that the $34.5 million federally funded project to build a streetcar line along Loyola Avenue to the Union Station in New Orleans inspired him to consider a streetcar line in Metairie.  The proposed line would connect the 17th Street Canal to Lakeside Shopping Center. Young envisions the line as the first part of a line that could extend from New Orleans to the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Others on the Parish council question the feasibility of such a line in the current difficult financial environment.