4 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

Talk about our time in New Orleans, from arrival the evening of Thursday, July 12th, our streetcar travels and dinner together on Friday, July 13th, and until our departure on Saturday morning, July 14th.

[KevinKorell]

Well circumstances being what they were, we still did a lot of streetcar riding, effectively re-acing the system after getting the new lines and one that has been closed last visit in 2011. Our itinerary first called for the two Canal Street lines (one to City Park and the other to Cemeteries).  We switched them up as the Cemeteries cars were coming more often than the City Park ones.  We rode the Canal-Cemeteries line first, and got the Canal Blvd. Loop that was added a couple years ago. Then in returning, we got off at Carrollton to the the line along that street to City Park.  Then back inbound on the Canal-City Park car to Rampart.

 

Here, the plan was once again switched up to maximize use of the first streetcar that came.  We knew whichever direction the next Rampart-St. Claude car was going, it would bring us eventually to both termini (Elyssian Fields Avenue and New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal) and back to where we started.  After this, it was time to split for lunch.  Some walk a few blocks while other took streetcars for a few blocks.

 

We reassembled on the corner of Canal and Carondelet, the main downtown stop for the St. Charles Streetcar line. Being the most iconic, it is also the busiest. A line for it formed against a building, a brutal wait in heat and humidity. When a car finally showed up, it was packed to the gills, with all seats and even all standing room taken.  Older  iconic equipment is used on the St. Charles Streetcar, thus it lacks air conditioning.  Well the open windows serve as air conditioning if one happens to be lucky enough to get a breeze.  

 

The ride is shaky, to say the least, by all the frequent stops, along with customers being nonchalant about travel, being not ready with their fares to show or put in the fare box when they are boarding.  And the operators who help them take a long time too.  For example when a passenger requests a $3 Day Pass, they must present 3 single $1 bills to the operator, who then sticks them into the fare  box and then a ticket is produced.  That process takes up to 15 or 20 seconds per person, and when have a group of people all doing the same thing, well that streetcar is not going anywhere for a while.  So a delayed streetcar in the scheme of normal operations ends up being bunched. A severely delayed streetcar that sits at one stop for 5 or 10 whole minutes without the ability of following streetcars to pass it, ends up causing bunching.  Then bunching creates a decision made to short turn one of the close vehicles so that it can serve a more populous portion of the line.  And that decision causes passengers on one streetcar  to get dumped at a stop and have to board yet another streetcar that is already crowded.

 

Overall, while it might please tourists with nothing else to do, NORTA does run this as part of their transit system , integrated with each other and with the  bus system as well.  I've seen other local streetcar operations in other cities, and they simply are not run as poorly as this.  Both the passengers who don't think about having their fares ready before boarding and the operators who allow it to happen without trying to speed things up are responsible for this.   There IS an app means of paying fares, but I saw a huge minority of the ridership using them. Most opted for single trips and day passes.  Each which requires on on-board transaction to take place. There are some ticket vending machines at selected streetcar stops, but the locals will tell the tourists not to use them as they might take money without producing a ticket.

 

Something better needs to ensue, such as requiring all transactions to be done off train, getting more vending machines and better ones that can do more things the passengers need.  Off train transaction could still be checked a lot quicker by the operator or another onboard employee, or better yet there could be a fare payment officer to inspect tickets and give punishment in the form of fines if they are not correct or current media.

 

The day ended with the group having dinner at Gordon Biersch , a combination sports bar and restaurant, where we had a nourishing meal in cool quarters after being out in the hot sun all day.   Service left a little to be desired, as our server was not as attentive as we would have liked.

 

After dinner with the day over, we went separate ways to walk, ride, or take the streetcar to our hotels.  Needless to say, those who took the streetcar lost the informal race big time, as we basically sat in one spot next to Harrah's Casino for a good 20 minutes before we started moving.

 

That should wrap New Orleans, and with the work done here, it's time to move onward and westward to Houston -- the first of 3 Texas stops for us.   Saturday we are going to get ourselves to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in advance of our Sunset Limited departure.

[BillMagee]

Just to add a little to what Kevin said, New Orleans was hot and humid - pretty much as expected in July.  After the St. Charles streetcar ride (NOT air conditioned), and facing the prospect of going to dinner with several layers of smelly, sticky sunblock, damp clothing, and what little hair I have being both sweat-soaked and hat destroyed, I bailed out.  I skipped the Riverfront streetcar ride and substituted a shower, some fresh clothes and cold water back in my hotel room.  Then, freshened up, I met the group for dinner.  Penny gave me a heads up when the group was heading back from French Market, and the timing was perfect.

 

I used the phone app for the RTD streetcars, and it worked fine. About 50% of the time the code scanners on the streetcar did not work, but just showing the open ticket to the operator did the trick.  I also noticed that, despite having a "schedule," the actual streetcar operation seemed to be a bit ad lib.  The cars came when they came.  If it matched the schedule, it was probably a coincidence.  It all worked well once we got the hang of it.

[saxman]

I took the streetcar to my house once we arrived in NOL. I joined the group for a majority of the streetcar rides the next day. I'll echo the inefficiencies of RTA being a resident. It's mostly a reflection of the attitude of the city itself. I will say that the addition of the new app and the screens inside in the streetcars has happened in the last few weeks, so they are making small incremental improvements. As a local to Nola, I find myself taking the buses much more often than the streetcars. They are actually much faster.

 

When we got to the end of the St. Charles line I left to the group to visit my girlfriend and family for the rest of the afternoon. She happens to live a block away from the end of that line, so the timing was perfect. The next morning, I boarded the streetcar again and headed to UPT for the trip to Houston.

[pennyk]

I will echo the others' thoughts about the hot, crowdy, inefficient streetcars.  I will attest to the fact it was faster to walk from dinner to the hotel than taking a street car.  I made the correct decision.