NOPSI/NORTA Vieux Carre Bus Line
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Created March 20, 2001 and updated May 8, 2006.
©2001-2007 Michael Strauch.

VIEUX CARRE BUS LINE:

Streetcar, trolley coach, and motor coach lines used to travel the interior streets of the French Quarter. City Park and Esplanade ran via Dauphine, Canal, and Burgundy. Desire, Franklin, and Express 92 ran via Royal, Canal, and Bourbon.

But in the late sixties and early seventies, preservation movements began to maintain the historic nature of the Quarter and its buildings. One of the objectives was to minimize heavy traffic that could place stress on foundations and walls. Another was to provide pedestrian malls on Royal and Bourbon Streets. NOPSI cooperated with these goals by routing all full-size buses on perimeter streets (North Peters, Decatur, Canal, North Rampart, and Esplanade). Desire, Franklin, and 92 circled the Quarter. City Park used Basin and Crozat, Esplanade used N. Rampart and Basin. These moves benefitted NOPSI bus lines by speeding up service around congestion.

To replace interior service, the new Vieux Carre bus line was introduced January 1, 1974. This line had two routes that started at Royal and Elysian Fields. Peak hour buses ran via Royal, Canal, and Bourbon. Off-peak buses ran via Royal, Esplanade, Dauphine, Iberville, Chartres, St. Peter, N. Rampart, St. Ann, Chartres to Elysian Fields. During peak hours, the new Bourbon Street pedestrian mall barriers were removed.

Public Service bought eight Flxette buses with trolley-style bodies handcrafted at Carrollton Shops, numbers 1000-1007. These were supplemented in 1981 with three Wayne Transettes on Chevy chassis (1008-1010).

Under RTA ownership, a single route was implemented: from Royal and Elysian Fields via Royal, Esplanade, Dauphine, Baronne, Poydras, Convention Center Blvd., U-turn at Howard Ave., Convention Center, Poydras, Water, Canal, Chartres, Toulouse, Decatur, Dumaine, Chartres, Elysian Fields.

NORTA continued using the Flxettes and Waynes after takeover of the transit system, supplemented by Carpenter CBW-300 buses. In the late 1980s, they bought Boyerstown trolley-bodied buses (pictured is 1043) in the late eighties to replace the original replicas. These were replaced in the late 1990s with Chance RT-50 trolley-bodied buses.

Pictured is Chance no. 6 on Canal making a U-turn at Burgundy/University Place in November 2001 during Canal streetcar line construction.

The route was discontinued with Hurricane Katrina's approach at the end of August 2005 and has not been reopened.

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