RTA - Agency that runs New Orleans bus and sreetcars - is a mess

Background: the RTA is technically a state agency, but like so many "state agencies" in New Orleans, it's basically a NOLA agency... as five of the eight commissioners are appointed by the mayor.

Like many public things in the city, from about the 80s on it was terribly incompetent. Then in 2009, they privitized the service, bringing in a company (known today as TransDev) to run everything. While the RTA still owned everything, all aspects of operations, management, support, etc, was all TransDev.

And by and large... things got a lot better.

Then as 2019/2020 comes and the contract was up for renewal, a bunch of activists and politicans started up about how privitization is bad, the government agency should run it all itself, etc, so the contract was not renewed, and eventually the RTA started running everything itself again.

And pretty much since then, it's gone to hell.

LINK

The first CEO they hired had a history of problems at other agencies.

Another executive was somehow working full time for the RTA and for a transit agency in Tampa.

A contract has exploded to an insane cost without any oversight.

Drivers aren't getting paid properly and the union is freaking out

Schedules are being cut back, and service is running behind schedule all the time / last minute changes are constant

The Rampart streetcar still has not reopened afer suffering damage in the Hard Rock Hotel collapse (it took out some lines)

But the local activists still think RTA running things themselves is a good idea, because "mentors" are created or something.

These same activists are the ones who want to run out the charter school operators and have the school board get back to running schools, despite the fact that the charters are doing FAR better of a job tha the school board ever did.