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Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood visited New Orleans to participate in ground-breaking ceremonies for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority’s (NORTA) Union Passenger Terminal/Loyola Avenue Streetcar project. The new streetcar line received $45 million in federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The streetcar extension, scheduled to enter service next year, will run through New Orleans’ central business district along Loyola Avenue from the Union Passenger Terminal to Canal Street—a major southern hub for Amtrak. The Loyola Avenue corridor is home to significant commercial and business activity, including the city’s energy, government, healthcare, and financial sectors, as well as many attractions and entertainment.
Also at the event, LaHood announced $3 million in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds for 12 programs through the “Innovative Workforce Development” program to support the training, hiring, development, and retention of public transit workers. FTA received 35 applications requesting a total of $7.3 million in requests for the available money.
NORTA will receive $400,000 through this grant to establish a streetcar maintenance training program to assist in hiring and training skilled streetcar maintenance workers. Funds will also go to programs administered by Florida DOT in Tampa; Denver Regional Transportation District; UMass Transit in Amherst, MA; Community Coordinated Transportation Systems (River Cities Public Transit) in Pierre, SD; New Jersey Transit Corporation; Los Angeles Metro; Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority in Buffalo, NY; PennDOT in Pennsylvania; Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City; Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority; and Chicago Transit Authority.
“With our transit systems growing in ridership and complexity, we must begin recruiting and training the skilled workforce to match the challenges of expansion and innovation,” said FTA Administrator Peter M. Rogoff. “We must prepare for retirements and build a knowledgeable workforce that will ensure that our systems are safe, reliable, and desirable long into the future.”
More information on the grant recipients is available here.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, center, helps break ground for the new Union Passenger Terminal/Loyola Avenue Streetcar project.
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