New Orleans RTA
ADA streetcars on St. Charles Line
Information from “Mass Transit” website:
The new cars are marked with the accessibility icon on the front and side.
New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA)
Dec 2nd, 2020
While the New Orleans streetcars are a tourist attraction of sorts, they are also a working part of the New Orleans RTA so the lifts are necessary.
I’ve been looking for more info from our local news sources, but I haven’t found a thing. Even the N.O. RTA site just had a brief mention. As far as I can tell, the cars in question were built in the local Carrollton Shops in the mid 90’s with the handicapped-accessible equipment. The conversion talked about seems to be mainly repainting from the red and yellow used on the Riverfront line to the olive and reddish colors of the St. Charles line. They were already very faithful copies of the old Perley Thomas cars, moreso than the Canal St. cars with the hokey (in my opinion) oversize fake clerestory deck built to hide the hump on the roof that I believe houses the air-conditioning equipment.
Paul, just from the photograph, and no other source, I guess that the air-conditioning equipment has been removed, along with the hump in the roof and the fake and ugly cleristory. And operable windows that work are now available.
Dave, these first locally built cars never did have air conditioning. They were close to exact duplicates of the old Perley Thomas cars except for the handicapped accessibility. Only the later Canal St. cars had it. I happened to see one of the Canal St. cars in the shop before the clerestory deck had been added, and the hump was rather low with a gradual slope, and I didn’t think it would have been too objectionable if it had been left in view. The clerestory deck could have been half the height and still would have completely hidden the hump. Of course, I also think the air conditioning was completely unnecessary; with the front and rear windows open, the old cars are perfectly comfortable.
I agree. The humps on the Boston PCCs don’t disfigure them.