In New Orleans, streetcars are called streetcars and their image is iconic of Crescent City. The streetcar system is cheap and easy to navigate. Old streetcars built by the Perley A. Thomas Company still run a 6-mile crescent from Carondelet, on Canal Street, in the central business district, to the oldest and most majestic section of uptown New Orleans, around the bend of the river to Carrollton on Claiborne Avenue.
Fat Tuesday, even though streetcars run along the Riverbend section of the St. Charles between South Claiborne and Napoleon Ave. On Fat Tuesday there is no service on the Canal line. However, there is regular service on the Riverfront line.
The Riverfront line was a dream come true for New Orleans business owners, developers and streetcar fans. In this regard, NORTA would like to replace the seven cars it currently has in service on the Riverfront line with seven other Canal-type cars. The first phase of the Canal Street line, which includes an existing segment from the Mississippi River to Salcedo Street, is expected to start operating in the fall of 2003, 39 years after buses replaced the original streetcars. It's hard to find deals on rental cars and parking rates in the city center and in the French Quarter are rising.
With the arrival of the new replica cars, the operation became the one-man crew found in other parts of the city. Eventually, NOPSI would be replaced by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, which currently manages streetcars. The new cars were manufactured following the classic Perley Thomas pattern, well-known in New Orleans, but they had a modern CKD (Tatra) undercarriage and controls in the Czech Republic. A formal inauguration ceremony for the new line is scheduled to take place during Memorial Day weekend, as on May 31, 1964, the last streetcar passed through Canal Street.
If you're near the Mississippi, the Riverfront streetcar is a good way to get to and from the Central Business District (CBD) or the Warehouse Arts District, upstream from Canal Street, to the French market on Esplanade Ave. In 2004, forty years after the abandonment of the original line, service began on the 3.6-mile line between Riverfront and a terminal in Cemeteries, in addition to a new 0.9-mile branch on Carrollton Avenue to City Park. Converted into a bus route in 1964, their return to streetcar activity took place in stages starting in 1999, with the opening of a six-block stretch of Canal Street, which connected the street. If combined with new standard-gauge trucks, the current riverfront cars could represent an excellent opportunity to sell ready-to-use vehicles for a startup or expand Vintage Trolley operations in another city.
In 1922, New Orleans Public Service Inc., took over the operation of all the streetcar lines in New Orleans. The current schedule predicts that the first new wagon will be completed in January 2002 and the 23rd in January 2004.
