The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) recently announced the receipt of a $45 million TIGER Award from the US Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT).

The grant was part of $1.5 billion in stimulus funding that the U.S. DOT granted to high priority, innovative transportation projects around the country. It will expand the historic New Orleans streetcars through the city’s central business district, along Loyola Avenue, a corridor that is home to significant commercial and business activity, and is near the Louisiana Superdome.

RTA's board of commissioners has a contract with Veolia Transportation in which Veolia manages all major transit authority responsibilities and operations. This type of delegated management arrangement is common in Europe but is the first of its kind in transportation in the U.S.

Two years ago, the RTA and Veolia Transportation presented a multi-faceted new vision for mobility to the mayor of New Orleans. In the first phase of the vision, the RTA hired Veolia to make broad-based improvements in the city’s transit system. The award of this TIGER Grant is a key second phase in the realization of the RTA’s vision for mobility.