Streetcars in New Orleans

Streetcars have been 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. Today, the streetcars are operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA).

New Orleans currently has five operating streetcar lines: St. Charles, Riverfront, Canal (with two branches), and Rampart–Loyola. 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 2005 and resumed only in part in December 2006, as noted below), All other lines were replaced by bus service between the late 1940s and early 1960s. Preservationists were unable to save streetcar service on Canal Street, but succeeded in securing historic landmark protection for the St. Charles Avenue Line.

Interest in rail transit revived in the late 20th century. The newly constructed Riverfront Line began service in 1988, and streetcar service returned to Canal Street in 2004, forty years after it had been discontinued. A new line on Loyola Avenue opened in 2013 and was extended onto Rampart Street in 2016.

In 2025, the streetcar system had a ridership of 3,136,500, or about 10,400 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2025.