The two-year long New Links process has been all about redesigning the regional transit network to make transit more reliable, more frequent, and get riders to more places around the region. The New Links team finally released a formal proposal in mid-October.
We’ve been engaged in New Links from the start and we really like what we see.
RIDE likes the proposal because we think it will make transit MUCH better for riders – especially the ones who need the help the most
The proposal would do three important things:
- Make a more equitable transit system – with riders of color and low-income riders seeing HUGE jumps in access to frequent transit
- Connect more riders to more jobs and more places around the region – with more DIRECT transit connections across parish lines
- Improve the system so it just plain works better for the riders who take it every day! It does this by responding directly to their stated priorities – more reliable, more frequent, more regional.
You can see the proposal for yourself at NewLinksNola.com.
And please sign up for one of our digital open houses! We’ll go over the proposal in more detail with members of the New Links team and answer any questions you might have. Each will last no more than 30 minutes and we have a lot of options to chose from over the next few weeks!
Keep on reading below for a little more on why we like the New Links proposal:
1. Transit is not working the way New Orleanians need it to. The bus doesn’t come often enough and often it’s late. It doesn’t go where riders need it to – especially across parish lines. This makes life harder for transit riders. It means they don’t have the same access to job opportunities, health care, or education as wealthier residents with cars. The New Links proposal would greatly improve this – and it’s the only way to see these improvements without waiting another 10 years.
2. The New Links plan does this by focusing on three big picture ideas:
- Make the system more equitable: The redesign prioritizes service for lower income communities, communities of color, and households without access to a vehicle.
- Connect to jobs: The redesign helps more riders quickly get to more areas with high concentrations of jobs center around the region. That means more service to downtown New Orleans, but also Mid City, Elmwood, Metairie, Gretna, and Chalmette!
- Give riders what they want: The redesign is directly responding to what riders said they wanted – more reliable, more frequent, more regional connections
3. It’s not just theory – the New Links plan means a MUCH better daily trip for riders, with BIG gains in frequency and reliability on the routes that most riders use:
- The RTA will double the number of transit lines that come every 15 minutes or less, seven days a week: New Orleans East and Algiers will both have reliable connections to downtown every 15 minutes or less, seven days a week. Hollygrove, Central City, Gentilly, the Lower 9th Ward and many other neighborhoods will also have bus or streetcar lines that come every 15 minutes or less, seven days a week.
- The region will double the number of bus lines that come every 20 minutes or less, seven days a week: Important supporting bus lines like the Elysian Fields, Magazine, Veterans, Galvez, Jackson-Esplanade, and Louisiana will all come every 20 minutes or less, seven days a week. That means even more improvements to neighborhoods throughout New Orleans and more reliable transfers for thousands of transit riders.
- Riders will have more reliable, on-time service as the New Links plan adds shorter lines with more neighborhood service that are easier to keep on schedule. And more frequency on the major lines means even if a bus breaks down, another one will be coming soon.
- Riders will have new, reliable regional connections with a direct bus from the New Orleans CBD to Elmwood (every 15 minutes), the New Orleans CBD to Metairie and the Airport (every 20 minutes), and easy connections between Jefferson Transit and the RTA on the West Bank in Gretna and more bus connections to the Algiers Ferry Terminal.