New Orleans streetcar project receives $21.6 million

The U.S. Department of Transportation bestowed a $21.6 million grant to the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority for its Canal Street streetcar service. For more than 200 years, Canal Street has been a primary urban thoroughfare, and streetcars were the principal mode of public transit in this corridor from 1861 until their replacement by buses in 1964. The $21,638,813 grant will help restore streetcar service on Canal Street from the Mississippi River to the Cemetaries, with a spur line to City Park. The project includes constructing over five miles of track and designing the new streetcars, which will closely resemble the historic cars that ran on Canal Street until that line was discontinued. Twenty-four cars will be built for the system, which is projected to carry 31,400 people daily by 2015.