NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal court settlement requires New Orleans transit officials to make the city's historic St. Charles Streetcar line accessible to people in wheelchairs.
The settlement was announced Monday in a news release from lawyers for three wheelchair users who filed the suit a year ago.
The agreement calls construction at six stops on the roughly seven-mile route to make them wheelchair accessible.
No changes will be made to the familiar green 1920s-era streetcars on the line, which are not wheelchair accessible. But at a more modern streetcar with a wheelchair lift will be put in service on the line.
The changes won't happen quickly. Applications for needed permits and the solicitation of construction bids could take more than 18 months.
