Home » 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering » Planning for the Gathering » Transportation Information

Information on Streetcar and Public Transportation
Visit the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (www.norta.com) for more information about public transportation in New Orleans.

Hotel Parking
Congregation and synod buses can park in the Gathering long-term parking lot located across from Hall J of the convention center. Please pick up a permit for your vehicles during registration or at the Community Info Booth in either the convention center or the Superdome.



Hotel Shuttle
Visit the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering Special Discounted Airport Shuttle page to sign up for a discounted round-trip shuttle rate for your congregation.

There are a few simple rules that you must follow to get this discounted rate:

• In order to book your discounted airport/hotel shuttle reservations online, you must book no later than 24 hours prior to your flight arrival time.
• Changes to an existing reservation can be made by phone (866-596-2699) only if you made your original reservation online.
• The round trip ticket discount is only for tickets bought through this web page.

This rate is good from now until the end of the Gathering, so you can also use it for a trip to the ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza.

Sub-leasing Buses
On each of three days (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) during the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering approximately 12,000 participants will be venturing into the city of New Orleans for Practice Justice events. For safety, stewardship and environmental reasons, transportation to and from the Practice Justice sites will be provided, as was the case in 2009, by the Gathering and coordinated by the Gathering Transportation Team.

This is a massive task, and we need your help! In order to move that many people, we need approximately 200 sub-contracted buses each day. There are not enough buses available in New Orleans or the surrounding areas to meet this need, so the Gathering Transportation Team is asking congregations and synods who will be traveling to New Orleans by bus to allow their buses to be sub-contracted by the Gathering on July 19, 20 and 21, 2012.

Why should I sub-contract my bus?
It’s good stewardship! The Gathering team decided once again to provide transportation for all participants to the service experience sites so we could be better stewards of:

• the environment — fewer vehicles on the road
• our adult leaders — who will not have the anxiety of finding their service experience site
• the Practice Justice team — who will be able to make necessary last minute changes
• Gathering resources — Conserving vital financial resources, by using buses that are already in New Orleans sitting idle, rather than bringing in additional buses from as far away as 500 miles at a substantially higher cost
• if your group is larger than 10 people, please make multiple reservations to accommodate your entire group

It’s also the right thing to do! By working together as a community of faith, sharing our available resources for the benefit of all, we can assure that safe transportation is available for EVERY participant!

If your congregation or synod will be traveling to the Gathering by bus, please fill out the appropriate section of the online Gathering Registration process. Chuck Nielsen of the Transportation Team/Justice Travel will be contacting your bus company directly. If you have any questions, email Transportation Team member Peggy Carlson (cnpc747@tds.net).

Housing for bus drivers
The following hotels have offered rooms for your bus drivers at affordable rates. Please call the hotels directly to reserve a room or for more information.

• Comfort Suites, Harvey : 504/361-9110
• Comfort Inn & Suites, Marrero: 504/267-0701
• Best Western, Chalmette: 504/309-6360