[PRCo]

[Fred Schneider]

Note the rider counts for Nawlins ... Please ride and keep the bus  
driver company!    A total of 16 routes at 2,500 people per  
day ...    Before the flood?   FTA 2001 data shows 165,000 daily bus  
riders and 14,000 daily on St. Charles.



RTA resumes service at night
Five routes will have expanded hours
Saturday, November 05, 2005
By Bruce Eggler
Staff writer
The Regional Transit Authority, which has been operating buses only  
in the daytime since it began offering post-Katrina service Oct. 2,  
will add after-dark service on five lines starting Sunday.

The Magazine, St. Charles, Canal, St. Claude and Algiers Owl Loop  
lines will run every night until about 10 p.m.

The Algiers Owl Loop line will operate only from 7 to 10 p.m.,  
serving portions of several Algiers daytime lines.

Details on schedules and routes can be found at the RTA's Web site,  
www.norta.com.

Ridership continues to be free on all New Orleans lines, with the  
Federal Emergency Management Agency picking up the tab through the  
Federal Transit Administration.

The RTA now is operating 16 routes, using 89 operators and 36 buses.

Several other route and schedule extensions also will take effect  
next week, the transit agency said Friday.

Early-morning service will be expanded. Of the 16 operating lines,  
all will begin service at 7 a.m. or earlier on weekdays, and some  
will do the same on weekends. Many lines also will run later in the  
afternoon on weekdays, and some will do so on weekends.

RTA ridership now totals more than 2,000 per day, officials said. It  
reached 2,679 riders for Wednesday after breaking the 2,000 barrier  
for the first time Monday with 2,462 riders.

The weekly total for Oct. 23-29 was 11,505, up from 8,419 the week of  
Oct. 16-22 and 5,407 the week of Oct. 9-15.

The St. Charles and Canal lines are using buses instead of streetcars  
until further notice.

For now, the St. Claude line is running only between Canal Street and  
Poland Avenue.

The following routes will begin extended service next week:

-- The Marigny-Bywater line will provide the first post-Katrina  
service along Convention Center Boulevard. From its former terminus  
at Canal and Tchoupitoulas streets, it will continue onto Convention  
Center Boulevard, travel to Henderson Street at the uptown end of the  
Morial Convention Center, U-turn and return the same way.

-- The Jackson line will be rerouted to provide direct service  
between the Guste Homes and the Wal-Mart store on Tchoupitoulas.  
Between Martin Luther King Boulevard and Calliope Street, the bus  
will use Simon Bolivar Avenue in both directions, rather than Oretha  
Castle Haley Boulevard as before. The Jackson line will run all day,  
Monday through Friday only.

-- The Louisiana line will be extended to run its full pre-Katrina  
route, from Louisiana Avenue and Tchoupitoulas to Delgado Community  
College.

-- The Algiers Owl Loop will run a large loop around Algiers,  
covering Algiers Point, Gen. Meyer Avenue, the Cutoff neighborhood,  
part of Tullis Drive, and subdivisions and complexes along Gen. de  
Gaulle Drive. On the east bank, the line will offer service to Canal  
Street on the same route as the Algiers Loop, Gen. Meyer and Gen. de  
Gaulle lines.

-- The Aurora Express line, which operates weekdays during morning  
and evening rush hours, will add a stop at the Algiers park-and-ride  
lot, on Wall Boulevard just off General de Gaulle, supplementing the  
Pace Boulevard line, which also serves the park-and-ride lot. The  
added stop will be only on trips to the east bank in the morning and  
trips returning from the east bank in the afternoon. The Aurora  
Express line will run from about 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. and 3 to 5:30 p.m.  
on weekdays.

Specific departure times on many lines will change, so riders should  
check new schedules at www.norta.com.

. . . . . . .



Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler at timespicayune.com or (504)  
826-3320.