Shorter commutes for some riders, lost bus routes for others mark first week of New Orleans RTA reboot

By Matt Sledge | The Times-Picayune

As a Regional Transit Authority bus rolled past Coliseum Square Park on Monday, Patricia Roussell sprinted alongside in the bike lane. The 63-year-old made it to a stop on Camp Street just in time to hop on.

Roussell had long taken the #12 bus that ran along Tchoupitoulas Street which was more convenient for her. But as of Sunday, it no longer exists, a casualty of the RTA's first wholesale transit-system redesign since Hurricane Katrina. Roussell sat down to catch her breath and offered a quick verdict on the change.

"I don't like it," she said.

In a series of interviews on four different bus and streetcar lines across New Orleans, riders gave mixed reviews to the RTA reboot. Some hailed shorter commutes. Others complained about long walks or transfers. The RTA's leader on Tuesday said that the agency is listening.

"We have received positive feedback, and we have received feedback that is not so positive," said Alex Wiggins, the RTA's chief executive officer. "If we identify a flaw that is a serious degradation of transit service, we will certainly address that, and we may address that sooner rather than later."

Years in the making, the RTA's "New Links" redesign went live on Sunday. Transit officials said they deployed an army of administrators, bus operators and "ambassadors" to give directions and information. They also waived fares for four days to ease the pain of the shift.

A handful of lines, like Roussell's preferred #12, were taken off the map altogether. But dozens of others saw subtler changes like fewer stops, higher frequency and altered or shortened routes aimed at making the transit system more efficient.

The Broad Street line's new route brought a smile to the face of Gary Owen, 66, as he leaned on a cane on his way back home. The popular line has been extended down Napoleon Street to Tchoupitoulas. Owen said he had saved half an hour on his regular round trip between Cadiz Street and a doctor's appointment in Mid-City.

"I'm going for a record here," he said.

That was the intention of the RTA and its partners at the Regional Planning Commission as they redesigned the bus system. With a greater emphasis on bus frequency, late-night service for hospitality workers and better connections between work and home, they hoped to make the average rider's trip faster. While buses were running largely on time on Monday, some riders worried that performance would slip after the initial days of the rollout, when the RTA said it was taking an "all-hands-on-deck" approach to staffing and supervision.

Not everyone had a happy experience on Monday. Waiting for a connection to the Broad Street bus that terminates at the New Orleans East library instead of Michoud Boulevard, two men groused that they must now make a transfer.

The new system increases some neighborhoods' reliance on transfers between local routes that circulate in one part of the city and main routes that serve as a conduit downtown and to other popular stops. The point of that approach is to concentrate buses on the agency's most popular routes.

At two of the agency's new, temporary hubs, in the Central Business District and at the New Orleans East library, there were few signs of physical infrastructure in place to protect riders from storm and sun. Agency leaders said they're in the process of installing more shelters.

Ernesto Guzman, a 66-year-old cook at Dillard University, was taking a dry run of his new commute that requires a transfer at the temporary hub outside of the Read Boulevard library. He estimated that it would add about 17 minutes to his daily trip.

Guzman, who's taken the bus since he got into a car accident in 2002, said he was taking a wait-and-see approach.

"I can't say anything negative, or anything positive. It's the beginning. It's too early," he said.

One transit advocate said Wednesday that she had heard a wide range of views about the new system, including complaints about bus frequency on circulator routes in New Orleans East. But there were also people happy that their favorite lines went farther and faster.

"At the end of the day, change is absolutely scary," said Courtney Jackson, executive director of RIDE. "We're hearing both sides of the transit rider story here."

Jackson urged members of the public and the RTA to let the dust settle before making up their minds about whether the changes worked. RTA board members sounded similar notes at their monthly meeting Tuesday, while offering broad praise for the agency's "all-hands-on-deck" approach to the relaunch.

"We are waiting to hear back from the public to make sure that these changes are actually doing what they're supposed to do," said Mark Raymond, the board chair. ___

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