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Summer 2025 Service Change Title VI Analysis
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DESCRIPTION: Review and acknowledgment of the Title VI analysis conducted for the Summer 2025 Service Change. |
AGENDA NO: Click or tap here to enter text. |
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ACTION REQUEST: ☐ Approval ☐ Review Comment ☒ Information Only ☐ Other |
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
No action is requested. This report is a summary of the Title VI Equity Analysis for the Summer 2025 Service Change which evaluates the impacts of: 1) Reductions to some overnight service and 2) The realignment of the 49 UPT-Riverfront Streetcar.
Staff finds no disparate impact on vulnerable communities for the overnight service reductions. Staff found that the reconfiguration of the 49 - UPT-Riverfront Streetcar results in a minor disparate impact based on the RTA’s Title VI and Environmental Justice Policy Manual. However, the negative impact caused by the new alignment will be mitigated by more frequent service on the remaining streetcar lines, improved transfer experience, and simplification of the downtown streetcar network.
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ISSUE/BACKGROUND:
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The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) operates 5 streetcar lines, 26 daytime bus routes, 2 dedicated Owl (Late Night) routes and paratransit service. The RTA implements three routine service changes per year and uses these opportunities to adjust service to improve reliability, align service with the Agency’s Fixed-Route Service Standards and implement other changes as needed.
The Summer 2025 Service Change, scheduled for June 1, 2025, aims to improve the reliability of bus service, especially in the morning and evening when the majority of pull-outs from the garage are occurring. Analysis completed by RTA staff indicates that since January 2025, there have been an average of five late pullouts each evening between 4 PM and 8 PM due to no vehicle being available. This time period is one of highest ridership periods for the system, so in order to improve the evening service, some late-night service is being reduced on select, low-performing routes. Two of the routes targeted for overnight adjustments (91 Jackson-Esplanade and 103 General Meyer) will see a reduction in service span of two hours or more, which meets the RTA’s definition for Major Service Change and must undergo a Title VI Service Equity Analysis.
Additionally, the RTA is implementing a new configuration of the 49 Riverfront Streetcar, restoring dedicated service between the French Market and Julia Street and eliminating the existing Canal Street to Riverfront alignment, currently named the 49 UPT-Riverfront. This returns the downtown streetcar configuration to what it was in 2018, before numerous construction projects that disrupted the service. However, it is a change from the current alignment, which qualifies as a Major Service Change under the RTA’s Title VI Policy and therefore requires a Service Equity Analysis.
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DISCUSSION:
CHANGES TO SERVICE SPANS
As part of the June 1 service change, the RTA Planning & Scheduling team sought address rider and bus maintenance concerns over reliable bus service in the PM peak. With the goals of alleviating the pressure on maintenance and improving reliability of operations, staff evaluated reducing the number of evening pull-outs. In order to reduce evening pull-outs, the team examined all trips between 11 PM and 5 AM to find under-utilized service that could be strategically reduced. These reductions sought to minimize the negative impact to riders overnight and maximize benefits to a much larger number of riders during daytime service.
The analysis resulted in recommendations for slight reductions to late-night service on five routes (Table 1). On two routes, the 91 Jackson-Esplanade and the 103 General Meyer, the reductions result in a change in service span of two or more hours.
Table 1: Service Span Changes by Line
|
Route |
Current first trip start |
Current last trip start |
New first trip start |
New last trip start |
Span reduction |
|
11 Magazine |
4:55 AM |
12:48 AM |
4:55 AM |
12:18 AM |
0:30 |
|
53 Paris-Claiborne OWL |
12:25 AM |
3:14 AM |
12:25 AM |
2:15 AM |
0:59 |
|
84 Galvez L9 |
4:00 AM |
3:15 AM |
4:45 AM |
2:08 AM |
1:52 |
|
91 Jackson-Esplanade |
3:55 AM |
3:05 AM |
3:55 AM |
1:05 AM |
2:00 |
|
103 General Meyer |
3:15 AM |
3:05 AM |
4:02 AM |
12:25 AM |
3:27 |
91 Jackson-Esplanade
Although the service span of the 91 Jackson-Esplanade will be reduced by 2 hours or more, the ridership that relies on evening pull-outs between 4 PM and 8 PM will be positively impacted by the elimination of an evening pull-out.
Between January 1 and April 15, 2025, the 91 Jackson-Esplanade route had 27 late pull-outs because of no available vehicles between 4 PM and 8 PM, affecting several high-ridership evening trips (Table 2). To reduce the delays for this route and other routes that require evening pull-outs, some late-night trips on the 91 Jackson-Esplanade have been added onto the daytime vehicle blocks to reduce the number of evening pull-outs. Additionally, two trips in each direction occurring after 1:00 AM will be eliminated (Table 3), which the RTA finds will affect an average of 15 total passengers per night across the four trips.
The high level of evening ridership compared to the overnight ridership means that the targeted reduction of overnight service will be a net positive for 91 Jackson-Esplanade riders.
Table 2: Evening trips for 91 Jackson-Esplanade Currently Impacted by Unreliable Evening Pull-outs
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Route |
Direction |
Start time |
End time |
Passengers per Hour |
Avg Passenger per Trip |
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91 |
INBOUND |
7:25 PM |
8:02 PM |
42.0 |
26 |
|
91 |
OUTBOUND |
7:27 PM |
8:13 PM |
21.0 |
20 |
|
91 |
INBOUND |
7:55 PM |
8:32 PM |
23.2 |
16 |
|
91 |
OUTBOUND |
8:07 PM |
8:53 PM |
11.8 |
11 |
|
91 |
INBOUND |
8:25 PM |
9:02 PM |
26.7 |
19 |
|
91 |
OUTBOUND |
8:37 PM |
9:20 PM |
20.6 |
15 |
Table 3: Overnight trips planned to be cut for 91 Jackson-Esplanade
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Route |
Direction |
Start time |
End time |
Passengers per Hour |
Avg Passenger per Trip |
|
91 |
INBOUND |
1:05 AM |
1:36 AM |
6.4 |
4 |
|
91 |
OUTBOUND |
1:45 AM |
2:18 AM |
5.9 |
4 |
|
91 |
INBOUND |
2:25 AM |
2:56 AM |
5.0 |
3 |
|
91 |
OUTBOUND |
3:05 AM |
3:38 AM |
6.9 |
4 |
103 General Meyer
Between January 1 and April 15, 2025, the 103 General Meyer route had late pull-outs 34 times because of no available vehicles between 5 PM and 8 PM, affecting the trips shown in Table 4. To improve evening service, the team recommends eliminating four inbound trips and two outbound trips on the 103 General Meyer, affecting 18 total passengers, or 1.7% of the daily route ridership (Table 5).
Additionally, a ridership analysis showed that Wilty Terminal is the most popular destination overnight for riders of the 103 General Meyer. As a mitigation to reductions, riders will still have overnight access to Wilty Terminal via the 114A Garden Oaks-Sullen, which runs all night and whose overnight service will not change.
Table 4: Evening trips for 103 General Meyer Currently Impacted by Unreliable Evening Pull-outs
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Route |
Direction |
Start time |
End time |
Passengers per Hour |
Avg Passenger per Trip |
|
103 |
INBOUND |
7:25 PM |
8:13 PM |
12.3 |
10 |
|
103 |
OUTBOUND |
7:40 PM |
8:33 PM |
11.2 |
11 |
|
103 |
INBOUND |
8:00 PM |
8:48 PM |
12.6 |
10 |
|
103 |
OUTBOUND |
8:30 PM |
9:20 PM |
8.4 |
9 |
|
103 |
INBOUND |
8:40 PM |
9:28 PM |
7.6 |
6 |
|
103 |
OUTBOUND |
9:28 PM |
10:18 PM |
12.1 |
13 |
Table 5: Overnight trips planned to be cut for 103 General Meyer
|
Route |
Direction |
Start time |
End time |
Passengers per Hour |
Avg Passenger per Trip |
|
103 |
INBOUND |
12:20 AM |
1:08 AM |
2.7 |
2 |
|
103 |
OUTBOUND |
1:08 AM |
2:00 AM |
6.9 |
7 |
|
103 |
INBOUND |
2:10 AM |
2:58 AM |
2.3 |
2 |
|
103 |
INBOUND |
1:15 AM |
2:03 AM |
2.6 |
2 |
|
103 |
OUTBOUND |
2:03 AM |
2:55 AM |
4.0 |
4 |
|
103 |
INBOUND |
3:05 AM |
3:53 AM |
1.8 |
1 |
ROUTE CHANGES
As part of the Summer 2025 service change, RTA is returning to the previous configuration of the 2 Riverfront but keeping the route number of the current 49 UPT-Riverfront Streetcar, which was implemented as part of New Links in 2022 during a time when the Riverfront streetcar tracks were not accessible upriver from Canal Street. The new 49 Riverfront will restore dedicated service between the French Market and Julia Street (Figure 6), eliminating the existing UPT-Canal Street-Riverfront alignment shown in Figure 5. While this will improve frequencies on both the Rampart and Riverfront Streetcar tracks, the trip from end-to-end of the current 49 UPT-Riverfront will require two additional transfers.
Figure 6: 49 UPT-Riverfront Current Alignment
Figure 7: 49 Riverfront Streetcar New Alignment
SUMMARY OF TITLE VI REPORT FINDINGS
The Service Equity Analysis of the changes to overnight service spans resulted in a finding of no disparate impact to minority communities and no disproportionate burden on low-income communities. Table 6 shows the demographics of the communities that will be impacted by overnight service reductions. Additionally, these adjustments were targeted to affect a minimal number of riders (less than 70 total per day, on average), and are expected to improve service reliability for a much greater number of daytime riders.
Table 6: Distribution of Impact of Overnight Service Changes
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Low-Income |
Minority |
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Change Borne By |
21.3% |
59.6% |
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Area Average |
22.6% |
69.9% |
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Difference |
-1.3% |
-10.3% |
The Service Equity Analysis of the changes to the alignment of the 49 Riverfront Streetcar found a slight disparate impact for minority and low-income communities due to the current 49 UPT-Riverfront's designation as a Hispanic/Latino and Low-Income Route. The finding of disparate impact is on the basis that travel times from endpoint-to-endpoint on the existing 49 UPT-Riverfront line would increase by more than 15 minutes due to added transfers.
However, the RTA believes that the negative impact of the streetcar alignment change is sufficiently mitigated by the increased frequencies on the remaining streetcar routes, the improved legibility of the system, and the addition of a new stop at the foot of Canal Street to ease transfers between routes. Additionally, ridership data shows that the vast majority of riders are not riding end-to-end and will therefore not experience an increase in travel times of more than 15 minutes. The RTA sought alternatives to the proposed routing but found that the proposed alternatives were not only out of line with the Service Standards, but were also more operationally complex and would have required additional time to implement. For these reasons, the RTA believes that there is a substantial justification for the change in route alignment and sufficient mitigation for any negative impacts.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact associated with the Title VI analysis and report. The reduction of service will result in small operational cost savings.
NEXT STEPS:
None required. Implementation of the Summer 2025 Service Change is planned for June 1, 2025.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Summer 2025 Service Change Title VI Equity Analysis
Prepared By: Elisabeth Stancioff
Title: Senior Manager of Service Planning and Scheduling
Reviewed By: Dwight Norton
Title: Chief Planning & Capital Projects Officer
5/22/2025
Lona Hankins Date
Chief Executive Officer