New Orleans — Streetcar Expansion Cut Back

Rail Transit Online, November 2011

The Regional Transit Authority's ambitious streetcar expansion program has been slightly reduced because the agency lacks sufficient funding to complete the plan.

The agency has decided to truncate the French Quarter loop, running along North Rampart Street and St. Claude Avenue, at Elysian Fields Avenue instead of terminating it at Press Street. Construction bids are expected to be advertised next summer and revenue service could begin in late 2013 or early 2014.

The RTA had even hoped to find enough money to extend the line, a branch off the Canal streetcar, beyond Press to Poland Avenue in Bywater. That project will remain on the drawing board along with an extension of the line now under construction on Loyola Avenue to a link with the historic St. Charles Avenue line at Lee Circle.

Meanwhile, a planned 1.2-mi. (1.93 km) spur on Elysian Fields Avenue to the Riverfront streetcar at Esplanade Avenue has been dropped because of neighborhood opposition.