(part 3 of 4 - Part 1/Part 2)
Elk Place and Canal Street, early 1960s
The third new streetcar line proposed by NORTA would link Canal Street with the Union Passenger Terminal. Located at Loyola and Howard Avenues, right next to the Pontchartrain Expressway, UPT is the city's Amtrak passenger rail station as well as Grehyound Bus line's terminal.
There have been a number of proposals and experiments in "light rail" connections from downtown to out near the Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY) over the years. Because of the rail corridor already existing from UPT out to-and-past Kenner (the Amtrak City of New Orleans heads in that direction on its way to Chicago), UPT is the logical terminus for a downtown-to-airport rail link. What was always lacking from those proposals was a solid method to transport people from UPT to the rest of downtown. A streetcar traveling Loyola Ave. would make the connection.
Loyola has a wide neutral ground, so off-street operations in both directions would be no problem. In addition to accessing Amtrak/Greyhound, the Loyola route would provide a good "back of CBD" corridor route. There are a lot of office buildings in and around the Superdome. Whether Big Charity is re-built or the new LSU-VA hospital complex is constructed, this line would be right in the thick of things.
Street rail is going to get busy at Canal and Rampart! Historically, of course, that's no big deal. At times, this section of Canal Street had six tracks across, four in the neutral ground and one each on either side of the street. I've got some great photos of this track configuration and the streetcar traffic it supported in the book. Canal and Rampart was the terminus of the old West End line, as well as the Orleans-Kenner Railroad. The 2004 Desire line proposal calls for connections from Basin St and N. Rampart to Canal to facilitate turning those streetcars outbound. These may have to be modified, however, since the UPT line would come into Canal St. just a block up from there.
Ideally, the streetcars should be turned around by routing the tracks right up to the front door of UPT; I've drawn the line to terminate in the neutral ground. Like the Cemeteries Terminal on the Canal line, this is a very busy area for auto traffic. Just a couple of blocks away is an on-ramp to the Pontchartrain Expressway, which ties to I-10 in both directions. Pass under the expressway and you can get up on the Crescent City Connection and cross over to the west bank. Drivers who don't go up the on-ramp can continue to Earhart Blvd., and follow that street out to Harahan. Any streetcar terminal built in this vicinity will have to seriously factor in pedestrian safety.