Streetcars in New Orleans
 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | New Orleans, LA |
| Locale | New Orleans, LA |
| Dates of operation | September 26, 1835–present |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 5 ft 2½ in (1588 mm); converted from 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) in 1929 |
The St. Charles Avenue Streetcar is a streetcar line in New Orleans, Louisiana. According to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, it is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world.
The line starts uptown, at Carollton 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 Zoo, 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.
The line still uses streetcars which were common all over the United States in the early parts of the 20th century.
Most of the streetcars currently on the line are Perley Thomas cars dating from the 1920s. One 1890s vintage streetcar is still in running condition; it is used for maintenance and special uses.
History
The line was founded as the New Orleans and Carollton Rail Road in February 1833. Service began on September 26, 1835, originally without a dedicated right-of-way, although one was eventually established in the neutral ground (the median). Over the early years the cars were powered by horses, mules, overhead cables, ammonia engines, and steam engines. It was electrified February 1, 1893.
Post World War II, like in many US cities, many of the city's numerous streetcar lines were changed to buses. Preservationists protested the dismantling of the Canal Street streetcar line in the early 1960s. While they were unsuccessful in saving the Canal line (which the city would bring back 40 years later), the preservationists succeeding in getting the city government to grant the Saint Charles line protected historic status.
In the Carrolton neighborhood the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority 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 cars, and converted some modern streetcars into near duplicates in appearance of the old cars for the city's newer streetcar lines.
Hurricane Katrina
The St. Charles line area 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. 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 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. In late December 2005, it was announced that the St. Charles line would stay inactive until approximately Fall 2006. The time is needed to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and to other maintenance/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). Several historic cars have been transferred to serve on the recently-rebuilt Canal Street line while the flood-damaged Canal cars are being repaired.