[PRCo] Streetcars will return to N.O. on Sunday

[Bill Robb]

      READY TO ROLL  Streetcars will return to N.O. on Sunday 
  Wednesday, December 14, 2005   By Leslie Williams
Staff writer 
   
  http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1134545458245240.xml
   
  On Sunday morning, New Orleans will get some of its rhythm back when its streetcars roll again. 
  Monday's experiment in which a historic green Perley Thomas streetcar, one of the 35 workhorses from the St. Charles Avenue line, was tested on the Canal Street and Riverfront tracks "was so successful" that the Regional Transit Authority bumped up the start date for returning service to the Riverfront line and a portion of the Canal line. 
        The RTA initially announced partial service would return by Christmas Eve or earlier. On Tuesday, after staff meetings to review the Monday test, the administration opted to proceed with the "earlier" option, said Gerald Robichaux, the RTA's deputy general manager for operations. 
  "It's important to the psyche of the city," Downtown Development District Executive Director Kurt Weigle said about the partial return of the streetcar system. 
  Eight of the 35 historic green streetcars from the St. Charles line will launch the comeback, RTA spokeswoman Rosalind Blanco Cook said. Six of them will be running seven days a week. Two will be spares in case anything goes wrong with the others. 
  A tentative plan calls for the Riverfront route -- the French Market to the Convention Center -- to operate from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. each day, Cook said. 
  A hybrid Canal route that runs from the French Market stop of the Riverfront route, which is where Esplanade Avenue meets the Mississippi River, to Crozat Street by the Krauss Building will begin at 6:30 a.m. and end at 10 p.m., Cook said. 
  Service will be free until March. 
  Three cars will roll only on the Riverfront line and three will run only on the hybrid Canal/Riverfront line. The eight-car operation will be supported by more than 30 workers, including operators and mechanics. 
  The first streetcar will roll Sunday from the French Market stop, Cook said. 
  The RTA intends to decorate all of the historic streetcars for Christmas with green garland and red bows, but it wasn't clear Tuesday whether there are enough decorations. Hurricane Katrina flooded all the candy apple red streetcars that served the Canal line and tore asunder the catenary system that powers the St. Charles line. 
  All of the Perley Thomas streetcars were spared from the floodwaters. And the system that powers the Riverfront line and part of the Canal line was relatively undamaged. 
  "The section in which it will operate primarily serves tourists. Tourism is a $5 billion industry in New Orleans," Weigle said. "Anything that gets tourism on-line is positive for the city and the whole region." 
  In the short term, the return of streetcars to Canal will go no farther than Crozat because of damage to rectifiers that supply electricity to the overhead catenary system that powers the cars, Robichaux said. 
  The city may receive rectifiers, which weigh tons and are difficult to install, from "other transit properties operating rail in the U.S.," he said, declining to name the entities involved in negotiations. 
  On Canal, the goal is to operate the entire line, all the way to the cemeteries at City Park Avenue. However, that may not occur until the summer or later because of problems with acquiring, testing and installing the rectifiers, Robichaux said. 
  The wait continues as well on the St. Charles line, which received some Perley cars from the historic Canal line after it ceased operation in 1964. No date has been set for starting to rebuild its catenary system, which was rendered useless by Katrina, Robichaux said. 
  . . . . . . . 
  
  Leslie Williams can be reached at lwilliams at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3358. 
  
  
  RTA employee Darian Epps sweeps dirt from a streetcar before its test run on the Canal Street and Riverfront tracks Monday. Partial streetcar service will return to New Orleans on Sunday. [1985180] 



			
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