Transit has been an integral part of New Orleans’ 300-year history. It has been a catalyst to the city’s growth and development and, later, in post-Katrina years, to its resurgence.
“Transportation has always been an important thread woven into the tapestry of the city’s spirit and culture,” said Flozell Daniels, Jr., the Regional Transit Authority’s (RTA) Board of Commissioners chairman.
That thread began in 1835 when the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad established the first city rail lines, which were operated with a mix of steam locomotives and horsecars. Six streetcar companies operated 28 lines by the late 1800s with the first electric-powered streetcars making their appearance in February 1893 on the Carrollton line. Following an extension out to Carrollton Avenue, the original line was renamed St. Charles and now holds the title as the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world.
The St. Charles Streetcar line was placed on Louisiana Landmark’s National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and became a National Historic Landmark in 2014; designations that keep the line operating to this day.
While the city’s streetcars are its most famous mode of transportation among tourists, 95 percent of the RTA’s bus routes connect to the streetcar network and local riders make up 78 percent of streetcar ridership. However, New Orleans can still draw a crowd. RTA, which has been operating the city’s streetcars, buses and paratransit service since 1983 and the ferry service since 2014, recognizes tourism is a major factor in New Orleans, where the population can swell by several hundred thousand during key times of year.
“To be honest, we feel we have the equivalent of a Ph.D. in managing events of all sizes,” said Jared Munster, the RTA’s interim executive director. “We are constantly tweaking and improving our operational plans, security plans and passenger/public information strategies to ensure that people (whether locals or tourists) are well aware of route, time and frequency changes, plus any special service routes we institute for a particular event.”
New Orleans is among the top 50 metropolitan areas with the most transit travel ranked by ridership per capita, according to the American Public Transportation Association’s 2018 Public Transportation Fact Book. New Orleans ranks higher than cities with two to three times its population, beating St. Louis, Mo., Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz., Houston, Texas, the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area and the Tampa, Fla., metropolitan area.
“At a time when most transit agencies are losing passengers, the RTA’s bus and streetcar ridership has risen in the past decade to what is now, about 18 million passengers each year,” said Munster.
A feat made sweeter with the memory of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The storm’s flood waters and debris ravaged New Orleans leaving offices and facilities in shambles and most buses and many streetcars destroyed or damaged.
“The Regional Transit Authority’s transit system embodies resilience and restoration,” said Daniels. “With the perseverance of RTA’s skilled maintenance crews and other employees, the commitment of city government and the Federal Transit Administration and the RTA Board, the effective action of Transdev (the RTA’s private sector operator) and many more stakeholders, the RTA’s system was re-built from the ground up in about seven years.”
While the recovery has been impressive, the question remains, “Would New Orleans’ public transit have been different had the storm spared the city?”
Daniels says it’s hard to find an apples-to-apples comparison for several reasons: Population in the city remains 10-15 percent below pre-Katrina levels, settlement patterns have changed and policy impacting RTA has changed. One example he provides involves the city’s public school students, who used the RTA network pre-Katrina and provided tens of thousands of additional riders every day on the RTA system, but that work is now contracted to different transportation providers for each school.
“While a comparison is difficult, the RTA is proud of how far we’ve come. Katrina destroyed or flooded nearly 80 percent of the RTA’s fleet and nearly all our maintenance, operating and administrative facilities. Yet, in the past 10 years, we have nearly doubled service levels (including an 87 percent growth in bus service), while dropping system-wide operating costs by 40 percent. Our operating efficiency is now better than it was before Hurricane Katrina and those efficiencies have allowed us to continue to expand service for our riders,” said Daniels.
RTA provides 76 percent of pre-Katrina service and has seen ridership grow 62 percent since the storm. RTA has also restored or expanded administrative, operating and maintenance facilities, as well as expanded its streetcar infrastructure with three major extensions since 2011.
RTA’s current challenge is an aging bus fleet. Munster says RTA will be adding eight new buses this year, with 17 more planned for 2020, in addition to 50 new transit shelters.
“There is much more work to do. That’s why we worked closely with the community to develop our 20-year Strategic Mobility Plan (SMP), which sets a clear direction for the RTA and the transit services that we want as a region,” explained Munster. “We are currently performing a Comprehensive Operational Analysis in partnership with our Regional Planning Commission to ensure that we maximize the number of people who can get to job centers via our routes and our system. Ensuring that we stay committed to our core principles of equity and fair-minded access is a foundational aspect of our approach.”
Modal and regional synthesis
New Orleans has a population that is just shy of 400,000, based on the U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts New Orleans city, Louisiana, but it has four interconnected modes of transit, a fact that Laura Bryan - an RTA Board Commissioner and the director of the New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Transportation - calls unusual, but notes that the RTA is looking to grow its service in creative ways to get passengers where they need to go, regardless of mode.
“New Orleanians have lots of options to get around, and we work hard so that our four transit modes work together for our residents. There’s more to do, but we certainly aim for a seamless multimodal system,” she said.
Bryan explains that the various modes do come with their own level of complexity, such as the specialized knowledge required for streetcar and ferry operations and maintenance.
“Most of our streetcars are nearly 100 years old and we make nearly all the parts for our streetcars in-house – from mechanical equipment to the wooden seats at our carpentry shop. This is a requirement of being on the register of National Historic Landmarks. Hiring for those skills is difficult, so we invest a lot in training,” said Bryan. “However, one result is that the RTA has unique knowledge. We use that to advise streetcar operations around the country.”
In 2018, the RTA responded to riders’ request for regional transit and, with the support of the Orleans and Jefferson Parish governments and business leaders and the collaboration of Jefferson Transit (JeT), opened transit hubs, expanded service and launched pilot programs. These efforts, as Daniels points out, strengthened the “regional” in Regional Transit Authority.
“When people move around the region, they don’t care about political boundaries – they care about getting where they need to go. Our region’s economy is integrated, so our transit network must be as well,” he explained.
These regional transportation efforts, which were included in the RTA’s Strategic Mobility Plan, include:
- The opening of the Cemeteries Transit Center in January 2018. The transit center serves as a connection hub for six bus lines and the Canal-Cemeteries Streetcar and the improvements implemented make it easy for riders to connect between the RTA and JeT systems.
- The September 2018 implementation of the Regional Ride Pilot Program, which gives bus riders all-day access to both RTA and JeT bus lines for $6, without having to buy separate passes.
- Mid-September 2018 service expansions including the expansion of the #39 Tulane bus line to reach Ochsner’s Main Campus in Jefferson Parish and extended 24-hour service on the #16 South Claiborne bus to match the 24-hour service provided on the #39 Tulane line. Alfonzo explains that the extension complements the Regional Ride program.
- RTA and JeT combined their call centers in November 2018 to provide commuters with stronger customer service assistance.
“Each of these milestones was achieved to enhance the rider experience, help provide better access to jobs throughout the region and to allow locals and visitors alike to more easily explore Orleans and Jefferson Parishes,” said Daniels.
SMP roadmap
One element that is providing RTA and the surrounding region with a roadmap of future efforts regarding transportation growth and enhancement is the Strategic Mobility Plan (SMP). The plan contains 129 action items for short, mid and long-term goals and was approved by the RTA Board in late 2017.
“[We believe] the RTA’s Strategic Mobility Plan is an unusually forward-thinking plan. We had a great engagement process throughout the city and the region, and the resulting vision and goals speak not only to the type of system we want this year and next year, but truly over the next 20 years. That strategic vision, along with the 129 action items, have been well integrated into our day-to-day decision-making,” said RTA Commissioner and Chairman of the RTA’s Operations Committee Fred Neal, Jr.
The SMP’s first goal is to earn trust, a goal that the agency continually strives to achieve.
“We’re making good progress, but we realize this is an ongoing process. Even having the SMP as a benchmark for our actions is very helpful in building trust. With that document as our guidepost, it’s easy to evaluate how the RTA is doing, and whether our big decisions match the strategy and objectives we agreed on as a community,” explained Neal.
In addition to the regional mobility accomplishments mentioned in the previous section, the SMP supports additional projects RTA has made progress on.
The Regional Planning Commission (RPC) recently initiated a Comprehensive Operational Analysis (COA), known as New Links which is being led by the RPC in partnership with RTA and JeT with support from the city of New Orleans and is a year-long project designed to study regional public transit connectivity between Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes. Neal explains that the goal is to develop recommendations for a network redesign that will ultimately improve the frequency, reliability and integration of public transit across all three parishes.
“New Links is a key step to implementing the RTA’s 2017 Strategic Mobility Plan,” said Munster. “The SMP calls for completing a new COA with recommendations for a network redesign by 2020. The New Links process will be modeled on successful network redesigns in cities such as Houston and Columbus, Ohio, which were able to significantly grow their transit ridership. We are hopeful that this redesign will help us serve more people and eventually increase frequency on the routes that will help carry the highest number of people to jobs.”
The SMP outreach process also identified the Canal Streetcar line as one corridor where riders believed improvements would be beneficial.
“[This is] the most important transit line for residents in our system. Residents take more than 3 million trips on it every year, more than any other line, yet it’s one of the slowest segments in the RTA system. It connects to our downtown job centers, as well as to every streetcar line, the Canal Street ferry and nearly every bus line. Improving performance is essential for getting our riders better access to jobs, healthcare and simply freedom of movement,” said Munster.
RTA conducted an internal analysis of options to speed up the Canal Streetcar line. The initial analysis focused on the area between Carrollton Avenue and Harrah’s Casino at the foot of Canal Street, as well as on three elements: speeding up trip times, enhancing safety and improving reliability.
“Right now, we’re in the listening stage. We will spend the next 2 months or so hearing from riders and the larger community about some of those options [and gather] their input and concerns. We’re finalizing a robust outreach plan to make sure we get that input from residents, before a final decision is made,” said Neal.
A look to the future
Technology has and will continue to play a key role for RTA. As Munster notes, the SMP contains specific guidance developed through community feedback on where technology can be brought into the RTA.
This past year, RTA implemented a Computer Aided Dispatch/Auto Vehicle Locator (CAD-AVL) system and launched a new mobile app, GoMobile 2.0.
“These new technologies have given riders access to information to help them plan and navigate the system better than ever before,” said Munster. “It’s a game changer. Real-time vehicle locations and alerts when services are disrupted make a huge difference for the riding public. When that is integrated with an easy mobile ticketing solution and trip planning, it’s even better.
The RTA’s GoMobile 2.0 app incorporates real-time tracking for bus and streetcars, trip planning and mobile ticketing for all ticket types. A ticket may be purchased using a credit or debit card and then scanned once on-board a vehicle.
“Our passengers have responded well to the integrated app, and some folks from other transit authorities have even approached us about it – asking how we pulled all that together into a single, passenger-friendly platform,” said Munster.
RTA has also added an online performance dashboard to the NORTA.com website at the beginning of 2019 and plans to launch an online chat feature for the Rideline call center, add a dashboard to track the progress of the Strategic Mobility Plan, incorporate new technology to provide information in the new ferry terminal building and explore the option to track the ferries on the mobile application all before the end of the year.
Munster notes that the RTA hopes to make major advances on its top technology priority in 2019: improving mobile and online options for its paratransit passengers.
“The RTA works hard to stay abreast of new technologies by working closely with tech partners, attending conferences and gathering new ideas from staff members,” said Munster. “Our approach is to keep close tabs on emerging technologies and what other agencies are considering and implementing. When we see good ideas that match the SMP, we look at incorporating them.”
Munster explains that the RTA aims to evaluate technology through the lens of what would make transportation more convenient for passengers.
“Our driving focus is to improve every step of the passenger experience – to remove any friction or pain points and make it even easier and more seamless for people to use transit. The RTA strives to make sure technology investments do not come at the expense of service supply. We understand providing efficient, reliable service is a priority,” said Munster. “The RTA is continuously balancing the addition of technology improvements with the basics of providing on-time, lean, safe service with capacity for everyone.”
As RTA prepares for its future through its SMP and through new technology, it also recently underwent a change in top management with the appointment of Darryll Simpson as general manager for Transdev, in service to the RTA. Board Chairman Daniels explains Simpson was named to the position for several reasons: he is an operations expert, he knows how to provide great service and he is committed to helping the RTA achieve its vision for mobility.
Simpson has held successively senior roles in the transit, paratransit and rail industry during his 30-year career. He spent nearly 14 years at Metro North rail service in New York City in various management roles in operations and oversight of capital projects. He also served as superintendent of Bus Operations in Charlotte, N.C., where he oversaw 350 buses on 50 routes. He then joined Transdev’s team in Nassau County, N.Y., as the director of Paratransit Operations where he re-built the service from the ground up. Alfonzo notes that he and his team significantly improved service quality, reduced complaints, improved employee morale and strengthened relationships with caregivers; providing a model for the industry.
Simpson’s recent career journey has placed him in positions to gain management experience in streetcar operations. He helped Transdev on a short-term contract focused on bringing the Atlanta Streetcar to full compliance with Georgia Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration regulations. He then transitioned to Milwaukee as general manager leading team that launched a new streetcar service under contract to the city in November 2018.
“Darryll is a unique talent in that he has deep, hands-on experience with the multiple modes operated by the RTA. He is dedicated to achieving excellence through continuous improvement. He’ll work to connect with passengers and advocacy groups and build trust. He will be a great addition to our team as the RTA prepares for its next chapter in improving public transit in New Orleans,” said Mike Setzer, Transdev president of the Transit Division.
