The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority will reduce bus and streetcar service on Wednesday (Sept. 11)  in anticipation of Tropical Storm Francine, which, as of Tuesday afternoon, is expected to make landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane. 

In an interview, RTA officials said buses will run with a frequency similar to the agency’s Sunday bus schedules. They said lines most affected will be bus route numbers 3 (Tulane-Elmwood), 9 (Broad-Napoleon), 51 (St. Bernard-Claiborne), 55 (Elysian Fields), 57 (Franklin-Freret) and 91 (Jackson-Esplanade).

RTA CEO Lona Edwards Hankins said buses and streetcars will be taken out of service for the duration of the storm once winds reach above 35 miles per hour. 

“It’s a safety issue,” Hankins said. “If the winds are sustained over that mile per hour, those big vehicles become much more of a challenge to operate.” 

Hankins said high winds increase the chances that overhead wires on the streetcar can shut down, leaving trolly operators and passengers stranded in a dangerous storm. 

RTA communications director David Lee Simmons said it takes four hours to safely shut down streetcar service before a storm and another four hours to get service back up and running. 

He said the agency is asking residents to avoid parking on city neutral grounds with streetcar tracks, even after parking restrictions are lifted, as it keeps personnel from safely shutting down or restoring service. He also asked that residents trying to clear debris after the storm passes not place fallen tree limbs and other obstructions on streetcar tracks as it can delay restoration of service. 

The RTA took its two active ferry boats out of service late Tuesday (September 10) morning. Simmons said the boats are being stored along the Harvey Canal. 

Hankins said that as of Tuesday afternoon, the agency is accommodating an increased number of requests for paratransit, a ride-share service for people with disabilities, to get to and from appointments for services that might be shut down tomorrow due to the storm. 

She said that as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, the city of New Orleans had not requested the agency to provide buses to transport vulnerable residents to a city shelter, but buses and operators will be made available should the need arise. In the event that parts of the city lose electricity, Hankins said she anticipates buses will be used to shuttle residents to and from cooling centers. 

In the days after Hurricane Ida in 2021, the RTA operated a number of “mobile cooling centers,” stationary buses used to provide air conditioning during the long blackout that followed the storm. Hankins said she does not expect the city to need that service for Francine, but the agency has the capacity to do it if necessary. 

This summer, the RTA received an order of 21 new buses some of which have been added to its active fleet. Most have replaced buses that were breaking down frequently, as they were operating beyond their useful lifespans of 12 years. Hankins said the new buses offer the agency more flexibility so that it can provide cooling buses if they are necessary. 

“We now have breathing room that one of our buses could be used in that capacity,” Hankins said.

Most Read Stories

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons License

Before joining Verite, Bobbi-Jeanne Misick reported on people behind bars in immigration detention centers and prisons in the Gulf South as a senior reporter for the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration...