Streetcars have been an integral part of the public transportation network of New Orleans since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of the city's streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue line , is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world. There are currently five operating streetcar lines in New Orleans: The St. The St. Charles Avenue Line is the only line that has operated continuously throughout New Orleans' streetcar history though service was interrupted after Hurricane Katrina in August and resumed only in part in December , as noted below.
All other lines were replaced by bus service in the period from the late s to the early s. Preservationists were unable to save the streetcars on Canal Street, but were able to convince the city government to protect the St. Charles Avenue Line by granting it historic landmark status. In the later 20th century, trends began to favor rail transit again. A short Riverfront Line started service in , and service returned to Canal Street in , 40 years after it had been shut down.
The wide destruction wrought on the city by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent floods from the levee breaches in August knocked all the streetcar lines out of operation and damaged many of the streetcars. Service on a portion of the Canal Street line was restored in December of that year, with the remainder of the line and the Riverfront line returning to service in early Charles line from Napoleon Avenue to the end of historic St.
Charles Avenue the "Riverbend". The streetcars are often changed or decorated for holidays and major sports events. For example, they are usually decorated for Christmas. These first trains, however, were pulled by horses because the engines had not yet arrived from England.
The PRR received its first working steam engine the next year, and first put it into service on September 27, Service continued in a mixed fashion, running sometimes with locomotives, and at other times with horse traction.
