St. Charles Streetcar Line

The St. Charles Line starts uptown, at South Carrollton Avenue and South Claiborne Avenue.^[3] It runs on South Carrollton Avenue through the Carrollton neighborhood towards the Mississippi River, then near the river levee turns on to St. Charles Avenue. It proceeds past entrances to Audubon Park, Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans, continues through Uptown New Orleans including the Garden District, and ends at Canal Street in the New Orleans Central Business District at the edge of the French Quarter, a distance of 6 miles (9.7 km).^[1] With the exception of Carondelet Street and the downtown portion of St. Charles where the line runs in the curbside lane, most of the line runs in the neutral ground (the median strip) with greenery between the tracks.

Planning for the line began in 1831, and work began as the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in February 1833, the second railway in Greater New Orleans after the Pontchartrain Railroad.^[3] Passenger and freight services by steam locomotives began on September 26, 1835, originally without a dedicated right-of-way (it ran on public streets), although one was eventually established in the neutral ground (the median). Service began as a suburban railroad, since Carrollton was at that time a separate city, while areas along the route were still mostly undeveloped. Two locomotives New Orleans and Carrollton were supplied from England by B. Hick and Sons.^[4][5]

As the area along the line became more urbanized, objections to the soot and noise produced by the locomotives increased, and transport was switched to cars that were powered by horses and mules.^[3] For decades in the late 19th century, desire for a mode of transit more swift and powerful than horses but without the disruptive effects of locomotives resulted in a number of systems being tried out. Experimental systems included overhead cable propulsion (with a cable clamp patented by P. G. T. Beauregard in 1869 later being adapted for the San Francisco cable car system), and several innovative designs by Dr. Emile Lamm, including ammonia engines, a "Chloride of Calcium Engine", and most successfully Lamm Fireless Engine which not only propelled pairs of cars along the line in the 1880s but was adopted by the street railways of Paris.

While the city's first experiments with electric-powered cars were made in 1884 (in conjunction with the World Cotton Centennial World's Fair), electric streetcars were not considered sufficiently developed for widespread use until the following decade, and the line was electrified February 1, 1893.^[3] At the same time, it was extended from the corner of St. Charles and Carrollton Avenues to continue eight blocks out Carrollton to a new car barn at Willow Street.^[6]

In 1900, the St. Charles and Tulane streetcar lines were extended on Carrollton Avenue and connected together, resulting in a two-way belt line. Cars signed St. Charles left Canal Street on Baronne Street to Howard Avenue to St. Charles Avenue, thence all the way to Carrollton and out that avenue, returning to the central business district on Tulane Avenue. Streetcars leaving Canal Street on Tulane Avenue were signed Tulane, operating out to Carrollton Avenue, then turning riverward to St. Charles Avenue, passing Lee Circle to Howard Avenue, and finally down Baronne (later Carondelet) to Canal Street.^[6]

In 1922 the New Orleans & Carrollton Rail Road was merged into New Orleans Public Service Incorporated (NOPSI), which consolidated the city's various streetcar lines and electrical production.

In 1950, plans were made to fill in the New Basin Canal, which the Belt Lines crossed on a bridge on Carrollton Avenue. The right of way was to be used for the Pontchartrain Expressway, and Carrollton Avenue traffic was to use an underpass. Rather than rebuild tracks in the underpass, the Tulane and St. Charles lines were separated, and Tulane Avenue was converted to a trolley coach line. During construction, the St. Charles line continued to operate (in both directions) all the way on Carrollton Avenue from St. Charles Avenue to the underpass construction site at Dixon Street. Once the underpass was completed, the St. Charles streetcar line was cut back to Claiborne Avenue, as it operates at present, and the Tulane trolley coach line took over the part of Carrollton Avenue between Tulane Avenue and Claiborne.^[6]

In 1972 automatic fareboxes were introduced, and the job of a separate conductor was eliminated from the streetcars. The line still has one of the Ford, Bacon & Davis 1894 vintage cars in running condition. Although it is not used for passenger service, it stays busy with work operations such as track sanding. The rest of the line's cars date from 1923–24.^[3]

In 1973, preservationists successfully listed the St. Charles line on the National Register of Historic Places. But it is not possible to provide the historic cars with wheelchair access doors and lifts in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For this reason, it has been the only service in the system not to have wheelchair access.

In 1983, the RTA was created to oversee public transportation in New Orleans. It assumed the operations of city bus lines and the St. Charles line from NOPSI, which has since folded into Entergy.

In 2005, service along the route was suspended due to damage from Hurricane Katrina and the floods from levee breaches. The small section from Canal Street to Lee Circle was the first part restored. The section continuing up to Napoleon Avenue was re-opened for service on November 11, 2007, and on December 23, 2007, was extended up to Carrollton Avenue, near the line's original terminus in 1833. The restoration of the line on the remaining section along Carrollton Avenue to Claiborne Avenue took place on June 22, 2008.^{[citation needed]}

The St. Charles line was listed by the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark in 2014. This recognizes it as a place that possesses "exceptional value and quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States," quoting the announcement from the Department of the Interior.^[7] It joins the San Francisco cable car system as one of only two moving streetcar National Historic Landmarks. (There are other moving landmarks, such as ships and trains.)

Following a lawsuit over accessibility, the RTA entered into a consent decree in 2017, agreeing to make six stops accessible: the terminals at each end of the line and stops at Napoleon, Louisiana, Jackson, and an additional stop near Riverbend, later designated as South Carrollton Avenue at St. Charles Avenue. The agreement also required the addition of at least one wheelchair lift-equipped car to the line, but the historic Perley Thomas streetcars were not to be modified.^[8][9]

To comply with the decree, RTA renovated three 457 series cars by 2020 (and later a fourth) that had originally been built with wheelchair lifts for the Riverfront Line, allowing the St. Charles line to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).^[10] The cars were repainted from red to the line's traditional green livery and carry wheelchair symbols on their ends and sides. RTA also rebuilt stops at six major intersections to provide wheelchair access. Accessible service on the St. Charles line began on December 1, 2020.^[11][12]

In May 2024, the Federal Transit Administration awarded RTA $5.5 million to construct additional accessible platforms on the line.^[13][14]

The St. Charles Streetcar Line operates 24 hours a day, with frequent service most of the day (7 a.m. to 10 p.m.), with cars coming every nine minutes. Cars operate every 18 minutes early morning (before 7 a.m.) and late night (10 p.m. to midnight), with 36-minute intervals in the night owl period (midnight to 6 a.m.).^[15]

The principal equipment of the line consists of the 900 series, a group of 35 streetcars built in 1923–24 by the Perley A. Thomas Car Works. They have been rebuilt several times during their long service life.^[16] The line also uses four 457 series Perley Thomas replica streetcars equipped with a wheelchair lift.^[12]

From Central Business District to Uptown

More information Stop, Neighborhood(s) ...

Stop		Neighborhood(s)	Other streetcar lines	Notes
Canal St & Carondelet St		Central Business District, French Quarter	47 48	Eastern (inbound) terminus of line Transfer point to Canal Streetcar Line Carondelet continues as Bourbon Street into the French Quarter Line turns back on dedicated track in Canal Street neutral ground apart from the tracks for other lines
By way of St. Charles Avenue (outbound) or Carondelet Street (inbound)
St. Charles & Common (outbound)		Central Business District
St. Charles & Union St (outbound) Carondelet & Gravier St (inbound)
Poydras St				Serves Hancock Whitney Center, the tallest building in New Orleans and the state of Louisiana
Lafayette St (outbound)				Serves Gallier Hall, Hale Boggs Federal Building and Lafayette Square
Girod St		Central Business District, Arts and Warehouse District
Julia St		Arts and Warehouse District
St. Charles & St. Joseph St (outbound) Howard Av & Carondelet St (inbound)
By way of St. Charles Avenue between Tivoli Circle and Carrollton Avenue
Tivoli Circle		Arts and Warehouse District		Stop is located south of Tivoli Circle where inbound and outbound tracks meet Serves Civil War Museum, Contemporary Arts Museum, National World War II Museum and Ogden Museum of Southern Art
Erato St		Central City, Lower Garden District
Martin Luther King Jr. Bl/Melpomene St
Euterpe St
Felicity St
St. Andrew St
Josephine St
Jackson Av
First St		Central City, Garden District
Third St
Washington Av
Sixth St
Eighth St
Louisiana Av		Milan, Tuoro
Foucher St
Peniston St
Constantinople St
Milan St
Napoleon Av		Milan, Touro, Uptown
Jena St		Uptown
Cadiz St
Bordeaux St
Robert St
Duffosat St (inbound)
Valmont St
Jefferson Av		Audubon, Uptown
Joseph St		Audubon
Nashville Av
State St
Webster St
Calhoun St
Exposition Bl
Tulane/Loyola				Stop at intersection of St. Charles and West Road Serves Audubon Park, Tulane University and Loyola University
Tulane University				Stop at intersection of St. Charles and Law Road Serves Audubon Park and Tulane University
Walnut St				Serves Audubon Park
Broadway St				Serves St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church & Loyola Law School
Lowerline St		Audubon, Black Pearl, East Carrollton
Hillary St		Black Pearl, East Carrollton
Burdette St (inbound)
Fern St (outbound)
By way of South Carrollton Avenue between St. Charles and South Claiborne avenues
St. Charles Av		Black Pearl, East Carrollton, Leonidas		Stop is located in the neutral ground of Carrollton right after the tracks turn northward through the St. Charles intersection near the riverbend of the Mississippi River
Maple St		East Carrollton, Leonidas
Freret St
Oak St				Serves Oak Street shopping district
Willow St				Tracks diverge via Willow and Jeanette streets to the Carrollton Station car barn
Jeanette St (inbound)
Birch St (outbound)
Spruce St
Sycamore St		Fontainebleau, Leonidas		Serves Marsalis Harmony Park
South Claiborne Av				Western (outbound) terminus of line

Close

• History of New Orleans
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Louisiana
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Orleans Parish, Louisiana