As the City’s plans to expand the streetcar expansion down N. Rampart and St. Claude Ave. begin to solidify, fears are growing about the new plans’ vehicular bias.

Now that the Loyola Ave. streetcar extension is open, it's time to transfer to the streetcar that gets off at Elysian Fields. The Regional Transit Authority will hold a meeting Wednesday night to brief the public on plans for the N. Rampart St./St. Claude Ave. expansion.

by Mary-Devon Dupuy

BYWATER - Despite the glare, the heat, and the noise surrounding the small group of activists and residents who showed up at a neighborhood rally Tuesday, there was palpable excitement about bringing the streetcar to Poland Avenue. It’s fitting that a campaign to improve neighborhoods in New Orleans would take place in the very neighborhood it could benefit most, smack dab in the middle of the neutral ground where residents dream it will one day roll by.

Plans to bring the St. Claude Ave. streetcar deeper into the Marigny and St. Roch remain stuck in the trolley barn. For the second time in as many years, the feds dashed hopes of running the city's iconic transit line down St. Claude Ave. to Press Street. The U.S. Department of Transportation released the projects that would receive money from the latest round of so-called TIGER for surface transit grants, and the $98.5 million proposal that would have completed funding for the St. Claude project was not on the list. New Orleans was not completely left out of the running, however, as the Port of New Orleans received $16.7 million to rebuild the Louisiana Avenue rail yard.

Construction is underway on the streetcar running between Canal and the Superdome. But things have been quieter about the St. Claude Spur, a propsoed stretch of the streetcar that would eventually connect Rampart St. to Poland Ave. Tonight, the titans of transit will break at least some of their silence by discussing the project out in the open at a public meeting in Bywater.