Stagnant – St. Charles Streetcar Line
Don’t be fooled by photos of our old, green, St. Charles Line streetcars rolling down the neutral ground tracks. Those are (temporarily?) running on the Canal and Riverfront lines Downtown. The St. Charles line has not heard a clickety-clack of a streetcar since Pre-K. Right now, it sound like cicadas and construction. The RTA has a breakdown of their plans and what is involved in repair on their website.
“Hurricane Katrina heavily damaged the overhead electrical system. Work on the entire St. Charles project will be completed in the latter part of 2007, at which time the streetcars will run the complete length of St. Charles Avenue. By the end of 2006, RTA is anticipating running a CBD loop of the St. Charles streetcar line, from Canal Street to the Lee Circle area.”
Unfortunatly, the last time I saw a St. Charles Streetcar on St. Charles was many, many months ago when it was being towed along the tracks to be put in use downtown. I miss the feeling of a breezy ride down the avenue. I even miss “surfing the streetcar” when you have to stand while it’s moving and try to stay balanced. I know everyone is trying to push New Orleans into the 21st century but for the next year and a half could we just go back to having horses pulling the cars?
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Great idea – made me smile this morning.
I miss the streetcar. I really really miss the streetcar. I miss hopping a ride from uptown to the Trolley stop and getting one of their 12 egg omelets.
I don’t have omelette nostalgia BUT I love the streetcar too.
I miss the Trolley Stop. Has it reopened? God, they had good food. We always ate there in the morning before leaving, which made for a sleepy drive out. Middle Son was more inclined to go when we weren’t visiting, with friends in the middle of the night. I thought that the streetcar-less neutral ground on St. Charles was one of the most forlorn visions I saw when I was there in July. I think I blogged about it. Nice post, Loki.
Actually, that was Alexis (the bylines are small. I am not the only poster on Humid City, just the primary one. )
My bad. A little slow on the uptake there. Nice post, Alexis.
Funny — I took the same photo last week. You beat me to it.
Funny thing is I don’t think I have noticed any work being done on the electrical lines for the streetcars. Granted, I don’t spend a lot of time on St Charles or Carrollton…. You would think you’d see some work being done as this has always been a bit of a draw, part of the charm of the city. I miss the streetcars too, but when / if they are back I wonder how long it will take me to remember to look both ways before driving across an intersection in the neutral ground. I’ve only just gotten used to the fact that I don’t have to peer about to see if a streetcar is approaching. In “the old days” (as Zeke refers to the days pre-Katrina) they would bang those bells at you if you dared get in their way. Scare the heck out of me.