New Orleans Regional Transit Authority - Post-disaster Recovery

Post-disaster Recovery

As of 2007, service was restored to certain areas as they become habitable again. However, there is no 24-hour service on any bus or streetcar line. Streetcars have returned to the full length of Canal St. and the Riverfront, initially using the historic St. Charles Line streetcars, which were not damaged, as the red Canal cars were. In 2008, the St. Charles streetcar resumed running the entire length of its route. By early 2009, the red Canal streetcars were repaired and had taken over service on the Canal and Riverfront Lines. The buses that have been restored to operation have returned to several major thoroughfares, including Elysian Fields Avenue, Esplanade Avenue, Claiborne Avenue, St. Claude Avenue, Judge Perez Drive, General Meyer Avenue, Lapalco Boulevard, Robert E. Lee Boulevard, and the Chef Menteur Highway. And just two express routes, Lake Forest Express and Morrison Express, both serving Eastern New Orleans, have been reinstated so far.

A year before Katrina, in addition to local and express bus service, NORTA brought Bus Rapid Transit to the city. The first BRT line opened up on Broad Street, with two more lines opening up months later running along Tulane Avenue and Saint Claude Avenue.