The green streetcar pulls up to Canal Street at Carondelet with a sound you don’t forget: a low iron clank working up through the floor, the groan of the overhead wire, the pneumatic hiss of the doors. It’s been making that same sound since 1835.
The St. Charles line is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world. New York has its subway, London has its Tube, but neither of them has been running on the same route, with the same basic technology, since before the American Civil War. The line opened on September 26, 1835, as the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, carrying passengers from Canal Street through what was then a separate municipality at the end of the line.
Carrollton was eventually absorbed into New Orleans, the steam locomotives gave way to electric cars in 1893, and the route has run without permanent interruption since, surviving every storm, every ownership change, and every era of the city’s reinvention. In 2014, the National Historic Landmark designation made it official on paper, though anyone who has ridden it already knew.
Board at Canal and Carondelet and take a seat on the varnished mahogany benches, the reversible kind where you can flip the seatback to face either direction. The windows are open. Within a few blocks, the avenue widens, the neutral ground takes over the center, and the live oak canopy closes overhead so completely that the sky disappears into green.
The houses along the route run the full spectrum of New Orleans architectural history: Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, early 20th-century bungalow, each one set back behind iron fences and gardens that have been growing for generations. At Lee Circle, the skyline briefly opens up. Past the Garden District, the neighborhood quiets into Uptown residential, past Tulane and Loyola, the oaks get older and wider, and the car keeps moving until it turns onto Carrollton Avenue and ends at South Claiborne, six miles and about forty minutes from where it started.
The line carries locals and tourists in roughly equal measure, and the difference is easy to read. Locals sit facing forward with grocery bags or backpacks, watching the stops tick by. Tourists sit facing the windows, necks craned upward at the canopy. Both responses are correct. The fare is just over a dollar, and the RTA’s GoMobile app handles payment and real-time tracking. Single rides, day passes, and multi-day passes are all available.
The St. Charles streetcar runs Route 12 daily with up to 300 trips, operating from early morning through late night. Board at Canal Street at Carondelet or at any of the 61 stops along the route. Download the GoMobile app or check schedules at norta.com.
