St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, Riverfront Line, Canal Street Line
Locale	New Orleans, LA
Dates of operation	September 26, 1835 – present
Track gauge	5 ft 2½ in (1588 mm); converted from 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) in 1929
Headquarters	New Orleans, LA

Streetcars in New Orleans have been an integral part of the city's public transportation network since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of New Orleans' streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Today, the streetcars are operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA). This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... New Orleans (French: Nouvelle-Orléans) is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... September 26 is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... | Come and take it, slogan of the Texas Revolution 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Rail gauge is the distance between two rails of a railroad. ... A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′ – a prime) is a unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... As railways developed and expanded one of the key issues to be decided was that of the rail gauge (the distance between the two rails of the track) which should be used. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... New Orleans (French: Nouvelle-Orléans) is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... A CLRV Streetcar in the City of Toronto. ... Nickname: Location in the State of Louisiana and the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Louisiana Parish Orleans Founded 1718 Government  - Mayor Ray Nagin (D) Area  - City  350. ... A taxi serving as a bus Public transport comprises all transport systems in which the passengers do not travel in their own vehicles. ... St. ... a historic postcard showing electric trolley-powered streetcars in Richmond, Virginia, where Frank J. Sprague successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888 A streetcar is a railway vehicle designed to carry passengers on tracks, usually laid in city streets. ... The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is a professional body, specifically an engineering society, focused on mechanical engineering. ... The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (or RTA) is a body established by the Louisiana State Legislature in 1979; since 1983 it has controlled bus and light-rail service in the City of New Orleans. ...

New Orleans streetcars on Canal Street

There are currently three operating streetcar lines in New Orleans: The St. Charles Avenue Line, the Riverfront Line, and the Canal Street Line. The St. Charles Avenue Line is the only line that has operated continuously throughout New Orleans' streetcar history (though service was interrupted after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and resumed only in part in December 2006, as noted below). All other lines, were bustituted in the period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s; preservationists were unable to save the streetcars on Canal Street, but were able to convince the city government to protect the St. Charles Avenue Line by granting it historic landmark status. In the later 20th century, trends began to favor rail transit again. A short Riverfront Line started service in 1988, and service returned to Canal Street in 2004, 40 years after it had been shut down. Image File history File links No more Strret Car Named Desire- New Orleans 2/2005 Photographer --- Bob Jagendorf Website --- [1]www. ... Image File history File links No more Strret Car Named Desire- New Orleans 2/2005 Photographer --- Bob Jagendorf Website --- [1]www. ... The term bustitution is a neologism sometimes used to describe the practice of replacing train service, whether street railways (light rail or tram/streetcar systems) or full-size railway systems, with a bus service, either on a temporary or permanent basis. ...

The wide destruction wrought on the city by Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 knocked all three lines out of operation and damaged many of the streetcars. Service on a portion of the Canal Street line was restored in December of that year, with the remainder of the line and the Riverfront line returning to service in early 2006. As of December 2006, temporary buses are still running on the St. Charles line, though service has been restored to part of the line. Lowest pressure 902 mbar (hPa; 26. ...

Current lines

St. Charles Avenue Line

St. Charles Streetcar passes the old Carrollton City Hall Building on Carrollton Avenue, April, 2005

The St. Charles Avenue Line starts uptown, at Carrollton Avenue and Claiborne Avenue. It runs on Carrollton Avenue through the Carrollton neighborhood towards the Mississippi River, then near the river levee turns on to Saint Charles Avenue. It proceeds past entrances to Audubon Park, Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans, continues through Uptown New Orleans including the Garden District, and ends at Canal Street in the New Orleans Central Business District at the edge of the French Quarter, a distance of about fifteen miles. Officially the St. Charles Avenue Line is designated as Route 12. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1155x765, 332 KB) 1920s Pearly Thomas Streetcar passing old Carrollton City Hall Building, Carrollton Avenue, Uptown New Orleans Photo by Infrogmation, April, 2005 File links The following pages link to this file: St. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1155x765, 332 KB) 1920s Pearly Thomas Streetcar passing old Carrollton City Hall Building, Carrollton Avenue, Uptown New Orleans Photo by Infrogmation, April, 2005 File links The following pages link to this file: St. ... Carrollton is a neighborhood of uptown New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. It is the part of uptown New Orleans furthest up river from the French Quarter. ... The Mississippi River, derived from the old Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning great river (gichi-ziibi big river at its headwaters), is the second-longest named river in North America, with a length of 2320 miles (3733 km) from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Dike (construction). ... Audubon Park may refer to: Audubon Park, Kentucky Audubon Park, New Jersey Audubon Park in New Orleans This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Logo of Loyola University New Orleans Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational Jesuit university in the United States with 5,000 students (3,000 undergraduates). ... Uptown is a large area of New Orleans, Louisiana. ... The Garden District is a residential area of New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Canal Street is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. ... The Central Business District is an area of New Orleans, Louisiana. ... French Quarter: upper Chartres street looking down towards Jackson Square and the spires of St. ...

History of the line

Planing for the line began in 1831, and work began as the "New Orleans and Carrollton Rail Road" in February 1833, the second railway in Greater New Orleans after the Pontchartrain Rail Road. Service began on September 26, 1835, originally without a dedicated right-of-way (it ran on public streets) although one was eventually established in the neutral ground (the median). Passenger and freight cars were hauled by steam locomotive. As the area along the line became more urbanized, objections to the soot and noise produced by the locomotive increased, and transport was switched to cars were powered by horses and mules. For decades in the late 19th century, desire for a mode of transit more swift and powerful than horses but without the disruptive effects of locomotives resulted in a number of systems being tried out. Experimental systems included overhead cables propulsion (with a cable clamp patented by P.G.T. Beauregard in 1869 later being adapted for the San Francisco cable car system), and several innovative designs by Dr. Emile Lamm, including ammonia engines, a "Chlorine of Calcium Engine", and most successfully the Lamm Fireless Engine which not only propelled pairs of cars along the line in the 1880s but was adapted by the street railways of Paris. While the city's first experiments with electric powered cars was made in 1884 (in conjunction with the World Cotton Centennial World's Fair), electric streetcars were not considered sufficiently perfected for widespread use until the following decade, and the line was electrified February 1, 1893. 1833 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Pontchartrain Rail-Road was an early railway in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... September 26 is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... | Come and take it, slogan of the Texas Revolution 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... On an expressway, motorway, or autobahn, the median (North American English) or central reservation (British English) is the strip of grass or the wall which separates opposing lanes of traffic. ... Union Pacific Big Boy #4012 at work on a cold November 29, 1941 A steam locomotive is a locomotive powered by steam. ... Cable Car in San Francisco A San Francisco cable car A cable car or cable railway is a mass transit system using rail cars that are propelled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. ... Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard (BO-rih-gahrd) (May 28, 1818 – February 20, 1893), best known as a general for the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, was also a writer, civil servant, and inventor. ... San Francisco Cable Car No. ... Emile Lamm (24 November 1834 - 12 July 1873) was an inventor and dentist. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... The 1884 Worlds Fair was held in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Year 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

In 1922 the New Orleans & Carrollton Rail Road was sold to New Orleans Public Service Incorporated ("NOPSI"), which consolidated the city's various streetcar lines and electrical production.

In 1972 automatic fairboxes were introduced, and the job of a separate conductor was eliminated from streetcars.

The line still has one of the 1890s vintage cars in running condition, although it is not used for regular passenger service. The bulk of the line's cars date from the 1920s.

Further reading

• The Saint Charles Streetcar -- or the history of The New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, by James Gilbeau, 3rd edition 1992, Louisiana Landmarks Society

Riverfront Line

Riverfront Line along the Mississippi River in the French Quarter

The Riverfront Line was built along a section of the city's Mississippi River banks, in an area with many amenities catering to tourists. It opened August 14, 1988, the first new streetcar route to be unveiled in New Orleans in 62 years. The line is the city's shortest, running 2 miles from Thalia Street at the upper end of the New Orleans Convention Center to the downriver (far) end of the French Quarter at the foot of Esplanade Avenue. Unlike the other two lines, it travels on an exclusive right of way, along the River levee beside New Orleans Belt Railway tracks. Officially the Riverfront Line is designated Route 2. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1760x1168, 274 KB) New Orleans, 2002-12. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1760x1168, 274 KB) New Orleans, 2002-12. ... The Mississippi River, derived from the old Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning great river (gichi-ziibi big river at its headwaters), is the second-longest named river in North America, with a length of 2320 miles (3733 km) from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. ... Tourists on Oʻahu, Hawaii Tourism is travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes, and also refers to the provision of services in support of this act. ... August 14 is the 226th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (227th in leap years), with 139 days remaining. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The New Orleans Convention Center is a building in New Orleans. ... French Quarter: upper Chartres street looking down towards Jackson Square and the spires of St. ... A right-of-way (plural: rights-of-way) is an easement or strip of land granted to a railroad company upon which to build a railroad. ...

Some old trams formerly running along the Canal line until the 1960s were repurchased and refurbished, with additional cars imported from Australia. It was the city's first streetcar line to offer handicapped access; the historic landmark status of the Saint Charles route prevented the modification of the cars on that line.

Canal Street Line

Canal Streetcar

The Canal Streetcar route dated back to 1861. Discontinued and substituted by buses on May 30, 1964 over the protests of preservationists, the Canal streetcar line reopened April 18, 2004, almost 40 years later. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (819x1229, 100 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Streetcars in New Orleans ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (819x1229, 100 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Streetcars in New Orleans ... This article is about the form of transport. ... May 30 is the 150th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (151st in leap years). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Canal Street Streetcar, in its reconception, now includes two lines. The main line, named after the original "Cemeteries" line (and designated as Route 42), travels a direct route from the foot of Canal St. at the Mississippi River to its head 3 miles inland. For much of its history, this area constituted the northern (lakeside) boundary of the city, which explains the density of cemeteries, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish, in this area. The other, designated "City Park" (designated as Route 45), begins at the French Market at the foot of Esplanade and Elysian Fields Avenues, sharing trackage with the Riverfront Line before turning onto Canal Street for most of its length. It diverges from the main trackage at Carrollton Avenue, where it turns on to N. Carrollton Avenue, ending at Beauregard Circle, at Esplanade Avenue and Bayou St. John, near the entrance of the New Orleans Museum of Art and within easy walking distance of the New Orleans Fairgrounds, site of the yearly Jazz and Heritage Festival. Canal Street is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Bayou St. ... The New Orleans Museum of Art (often referred to as NOMA) in New Orleans, Louisiana, was established nearly a hundred years ago and is the citys oldest fine arts institution. ...

Further reading

• New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line by Edward J. Branley, Arcadia Publishing

History

In 1902, there was protest when the Louisiana legislature mandated that public transportation must enforce racial segregation. At first this was objected to by both white and black riders as an inconvenience, and by the streetcar companies on grounds of both added expense and the difficulties of determining the racial background of some New Orleanians. The Rex Theatre for Colored People Racial segregation is characterized by separation of different races in daily life when both are doing equal tasks, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or...

In 1929, there was a wide spread strike by transit workers demanding better pay which was widely supported by much of the public. Sandwiches on baguettes were given to the "poor boys" on strike, said to be the origin of the local name of "po' boy" sandwiches. This article is about the food item. ...

During World War II, a few old mule drawn cars were returned to service on a few shorter lines as an energy saving measure. After the war, as with much of the United States, many streetcar lines were replaced with buses.

Hurricane Katrina

Fallen pole across St. Charles streetcar tracks

The area through which the St. Charles Avenue Line travelled fared comparatively well in Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on New Orleans at the end of August, 2005, with moderate flooding only of the two ends of the line at Claiborne Avenue and at Canal Street. However, wind damage and falling trees took out many sections of catenary along St. Charles Avenue, and vehicles parked on the neutral ground over the inactive tracks have degraded parts of the right-of-way. At the start of October, 2005, as this part of town started being repopulated, bus service began running on the St. Charles line. The section running from Carondelet Street to Lee Circle in the Central Business District was restored December 19th 2006 at 10:30am Central time , with the rest of the line to be restored by late 2007. The time is needed to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and to perform other maintenance and upgrades to the lines that was scheduled before the hurricane; leaving the line shut down and electrical system unpowered will allow the upgrades to be performed more safely and easily. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2592x1944, 2315 KB) New Orleans: View of St. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2592x1944, 2315 KB) New Orleans: View of St. ... Lowest pressure 902 mbar (hPa; 26. ... The overhead lines of a Swiss Federal Railways track. ...

Perhaps more serious was the effect on the system's rolling stock. The vintage streetcars rode out the storm in the sealed barn in a portion of Old Carrollton that didn't flood, and are undamaged. However, the new cars were in a different barn that did flood, and all of them were rendered inoperable; current estimates are that they may cost up to $1 million a car to restore.

Return of streetcars after Katrina: Vintage St. Charles line car on the Canal Street route, March 2006

Service on the Canal Street Line was restored in December 2005, with several historic St. Charles line green cars transferred to serve there while the flood-damaged cars are being repaired. In December of 2006, partial service was restarted on the St. Charles line, between Canal St. and Lee Circle. The eventual reopening of all lines is a major priority for the city as it rebuilds. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2592x1944, 2281 KB) Summary Srouce: http://www. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2592x1944, 2281 KB) Summary Srouce: http://www. ...

Historic lines

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the city had dozens of lines, including:

• Claiborne Avenue
• Desire Street -- the line was immortalized in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. The line was converted to busses in 1948. Various proposals to revive the streetcar line have been discussed in recent years.
• Esplanade Avenue
• Felicity Street
• Jackson Avenue
• Louisiana Avenue
• Magazine Street
• Maple Street
• Napoleon Avenue (resurrection being considered)
  • once longest line in New Orleans, stretching from Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas, along Napoleon, Washington, and Palmetto, then down Metairie Rd. to Shrewsbury
• Orleans Avenue
• Rampart Street -- line discontinued in 1947.
• Royal Street
• St. Claude Avenue (resurrection being considered as new "Desire" line)
• Tchoupitoulas Street
• Tulane Avenue (St. Charles-Tulane Belt)
• Orleans/Kenner streetcar line -- the line operated between 1915-1931 and connected New Orleans to Kenner. The line ran between the intersection of Rampart and Canal in New Orleans and the intersection of Williams Blvd and Jefferson Hwy in Kenner.[1]

Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the pen name Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright and one of the prominent playwrights of the twentieth century. ... A Streetcar Named Desire is a famous American play written by Tennessee Williams for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. ... Esplanade Avenue is an important street in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Rampart Street is a four-lane thoroughfare in the City of New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Rampart Street is a four-lane thoroughfare in the City of New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Canal Street is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. ...

Current rolling stock

The St. Charles Avenue Line has traditionally used streetcars of the type that were common all over the United States in the early parts of the 20th century. Most of the streetcars that were running on this line before Katrina were Perley Thomas cars dating from the 1920s. One 1890s vintage streetcar is still in running condition; it is used for maintenance and special uses. Unlike most North American cities with streetcar systems, New Orleans never adopted PCC cars in the 1930s or 1940s, and never traded in older streetcars for modern light rail vehicles in the later 20th century. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Perley A. Thomas Car Works, Inc. ... The 1920s is a decade sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the Mauve Decade, because William Henry Perkins aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the Gay Nineties, under the then-current usage of the word gay which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no... A Twin City Rapid Transit PCC streetcar in museum operation. ... This article is about light rail systems in general. ...

In the Carrollton neighborhood, the RTA has a streetcar barn where the streetcars of the city's lines are stored and maintained. The shop there has become adept at duplicating any part needed for the vintage cars.

With the addition of the two new lines, more vehicles were needed for the system. The RTA's shops converted some modern streetcars into near duplicates in appearance of the older cars, and built a number of others from scratch. These new cars can be distinguished from the vintage vehicles by their bright red color; unlike the older cars, they are air conditioned and ADA-compliant. Note: in the broadest sense, air conditioning can refer to any form of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning. ... The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is the short title of United States Public Law 101-336, 104 Stat. ...

Before Hurricane Katrina, the historic cars ran exclusively on the St. Charles Avenue Line, and the newer cars on the other two lines. However, in the wake of hurricane damage to both the tracks and the cars, such vehicles and infrastructure as are functional run where possible until full repairs can be made.

References

• U.S. Urban Rail Transit Lines Opened From 1980 (PDF)
• NYCSubway.org's New Orleans pages

PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Trams in New Orleans

• New Orleans Streetcars