T loaner to power Big Easy's trolleys

To the MBTA, it's a 22-year-old portable electric substation, gathering dust after upgrades to the T's power system made it largely obsolete.

To the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, however, the 60-foot-long mobile unit is a lifeline to return service on one of the Crescent City's historic streetcar lines and restore another piece of daily life to a city still recovering from one of the nation's worst natural disasters.

State Transportation Secretary John Cogliano announced yesterday that the nation's oldest subway is shipping the substation south to help the oldest continuously operating streetcars in the world. The unit, which includes three transformers, should arrive in New Orleans by the end of the week. It was chosen after a nationwide search found that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was the only transit agency in North America to have a unit compatible with the 600-volt overhead wire system that powers New Orleans streetcars.

''In this case, age was on our side," said MBTA general manager Daniel A. Grabauskas. ''A lot of times, that's not the case."

The substation will be used to convert alternating-current electricity into the direct current needed to propel the olive-green streetcars and trolleys from Canal Street near the French Quarter to City Park, near the city's famous cemeteries.

New Orleans is trying to restore service before Mardi Gras, the first since Hurricane Katrina swamped the city in September. Fat Tuesday is Feb. 28.

''It's very important for tourism," said Rosalind Blanco Cook, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority. ''The city needs people to come back and to spend their money here. More importantly, the streetcars are an icon of New Orleans. When people think of New Orleans, they think of the streetcar."

The power unit, which looks something like the cargo container on the back of a tractor-trailer, was repaired in Virginia yesterday and should be in New Orleans as soon as Friday, Grabauskas said.

The Commonwealth is loaning the substation to New Orleans free for about a year. If the T needs the unit in an emergency, a deal has been reached to get it back with five days notice, officials said. New Orleans plans to ask the federal government to reimburse the T for the cost of transporting it.

When Grabauskas introduced himself yesterday to William J. DeVille, the transit general manager in New Orleans, at a conference in Long Beach, Calif., he said, DeVille half-hugged him.

DeVille said it was more of a full hug. ''For Boston to come in when they did, it was absolutely key," he said.

During the flooding caused by Katrina, most of the New Orleans system's power substations were destroyed. While some of the historic streetcars began running in December, they cannot all restart until full power can be restored. Buses are substituting for much of the service.

The system has been slow to recover. So devastated was the city and so scarce were residents that when the service resumed, only 50 people rode it the first day. Now, bus and streetcar service is seeing 14,000 riders daily, officials said.

Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.