Planners roll out N.O. terminal revival ideas

In an effort to breathe life into a downtown transit hub, New Orleans urban planners are dusting off a 14-year-old plan to revitalize the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.

Officials first scuttled the effort when talks to revitalize the Canal Streetcar Project began. Prior to being shelved, a team had drawn up a master plan for the Loyola Avenue station that houses Amtrak and Greyhound operations.

That plan fell by the wayside as city officials and regional planners focused on Canal Street, said Darrel Saizan Jr., prinicipal for Saizan and Associates Inc. consultants in New Orleans.

The previous leadership felt (the master plan) was in competition with funding, Saizan said.

Now, he said, developing the terminal would be an economic engine for the city, revitalizing and bringing the area up to par with cities such as Houston and Atlanta, which have developed similar transit terminals.

The goal outlined in the original master plan is to turn the terminal into a base where all rail systems converge.

The original plan called for light rail between Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and the Central Business District, and a high-speed rail between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Saizan said. A high-speed rail link between New Orleans and Slidell is now an option, too, Saizan said.

Plans to revive the decaying terminal started in 1990 when the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Transit Administration offered the city a $200,000 demonstration grant to do a strategic plan, Saizan said. After a study combining multiple modes of transportation was completed in 1996 as a follow-up to the strategic plan, Mayor Marc Morial's administration decided to emphasize the Canal Streetcar Project instead, Saizan said.

Projected costs for the terminal project were between $75 million and $80 million, Saizan said. It would cost $1 million now to update the report on track capacity needed to accommodate several rail systems.

Through the years, several parts of the original master plan were completed. A key component now under way is the $7 million extension of Howard Avenue from Loyola Avenue, creating a circular roadway around the sports arena, said Walter Brooks, executive director of the Regional Planning Commission.

We need the connection. It's good for special events, he said.

Sean Cummings, interim executive director of the New Orleans Building Corp., which manages the terminal, said Mayor C. Ray Nagin's administration is working on a variety of improvements to the terminal and campus although he is not using the original plan. Cummings said the mayor's plan will provide for a light rail system between the airport and Central Business District if it comes to fruition.

In the meantime, we are going to make it a spectacular train (and bus) station that benefits the great city that we have, Cummings said. Our priority is the extension of Howard Avenue back toward the sports arena and to really improve (traffic) circulation.

After years of neglect, needed repairs include bringing in musical entertainment for arriving trains and buses, a homeland security- type surveillance system and new retail, along with maintenance of overgrown landscaping and broken air conditioners.

The development patterns of the last half century have almost killed transit, said Robert Dunphy, senior resident fellow for transportation with the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.

The move to malls, tech parks and suburbs led to the expensive retrofitting of our transportation system to accommodate automobiles, Dunphy said.

Dunphy recommends considering several key factors when building a transit base: Think development when thinking transit; build a community, not a project; make retail development-driven instead of transit-driven; put parking accommodations near transit; and encourage residents of all income levels to live near transit.

Combining rail services can save on capital investments and can create a hub of activity that feeds retail, commercial and even some office development, said Alan Artibise, dean of the University of New Orleans' College of Urban and Public Affairs.

Retail and commercial activity must be able to support maintaining the building.

The more difficult question is, what will the impact of an improved Union Passenger Terminal be on the ridership? It's kind of a chicken-and-egg situation, he said. Without development, it's more difficult to improve rail service but development won't necessarily lead to ridership improvements.

But ridership won't improve unless service on the lines improves. Everything needs to be coordinated, he said. I would say that I consider it an important investment but it shouldn't be over exaggerated the kind of impact it could have.

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