Sun Metro Mass Transit Department, simply known as Sun Metro, is the

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...

provider that serves

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

. Consisting of buses and

paratransit Paratransit (also community transport in the United Kingdom, or intermediate public transport) is a type of public transport service that supplements fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. P ...

service, it is a department of the City of El Paso, and the agency also serves the rest of El Paso County. The major hub is located at the Bert Williams Downtown Santa Fe Transfer Center in the surrounding block areas in Downtown El Paso. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .

History

Until 1987, Sun Metro was called Sun City Area Transit (SCAT). The agency was headquartered at the historic Union Depot in downtown El Paso until 2014, when it opened a new facility along Montana Avenue southeast of

El Paso International Airport El Paso International Airport (EPIA, , ) is an international airport located four miles (6 km) northeast of downtown El Paso, in El Paso County, Texas, United States. It is the busiest commercial airport in West Texas, Southern New Mexico ...

Facilities

* Bert Williams Downtown Santa Fe Transfer Center, 601 Santa Fe St. * Al Jefferson Westside Transfer Center, 7535 Remcon Cir. * Arturo Tury Benavides Cielo Vista Transit Center, 1165 Sunmount Dr. * Rorbert E. McKee Five Points Transit Center, 2830 Montana Ave. * Transit Operations Center, 10151 Montana Ave. * LIFT Facility, 5081 Fred Wilson Ave. * Arves E. Jones Sr. Northgate Transit Center, 9348 Dyer St. * Union Plaza Transit Terminal, 400 W. San Antonio Ave. * Nestor A. Valencia Mission Valley Transit Center, 9065 Alameda Ave. * Glory Road Transit Center, 100 E. Glory Road

Services

Brio

Sun Metro began operating its

express bus service Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indications o ...

, named Brio, on October 27, 2014, serving the Mesa Street corridor (part of State Highway 20) between

Downtown El Paso Downtown El Paso is the central business district of El Paso, Texas. Historical downtown James Day, an El Paso historian, said that downtown's main business area was originally centered between Second Street and San Francisco Street. At a lat ...

and the Westside Transfer Center in Northwest El Paso. The frequency of Brio buses range from 10 minutes during weekday

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...

s to 15 minutes mid-day from Monday to Friday, and 20 minutes on Saturdays; buses do not run on Sundays or holidays. The line uses 22 purpose-built curbside stations with shelters,

ticket vending machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance, ...

s for pre-boarding payment, and real-time arrival information. The route runs in mixed traffic, but does use

transit signal priority Bus priority or transit signal priority (TSP) is a name for various techniques to improve service and reduce delay for mass transit vehicles at intersections (or junctions) controlled by traffic signals. TSP techniques are most commonly associa ...

. The Brio fleet consists of branded

New Flyer New Flyer is a Canadian multinational Bus manufacturing, bus manufacturer, specializing in the production of transit buses. New Flyer is owned by the NFI Group, a holding company for several bus manufacturers. New Flyer has several manufacturing ...

Xcelsior The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid bus, rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated bus, articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different availa ...

articulated bus An articulated bus, also referred to as a slinky bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, is an articulated vehicle, typically a motor bus or trolleybus, used in public transportation. It is usually a ...

es powered by

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...

, able to carry 72 total passengers and feature on-board

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

, interior bike racks, and passenger information monitors. The project cost $27.1 million to implement, using local funds and a

Federal Transit Administration The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...

grant. Sun Metro opened its second Brio route, extending the system to

Mission Valley Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the City of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Mi ...

via Alameda Avenue at a cost of $35.5 million. Further routes on Dyer Street and Montana Avenue are planned, with the former beginning construction as early as 2017.

El Paso Streetcar

The El Paso Streetcar is a

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

system in

, that opened for service on November 9, 2018, and uses a fleet of restored

PCC streetcar The Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful domestically, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the world where ...

s that had served the city's previous system until its closure in 1974. The system covers (round trip) in two loops from

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

. The system was constructed under the authority of the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, but when the major construction was completed, around spring 2018, it was transferred to Sun Metro, for operation and maintenance. , construction of the system was projected to cost $97 million.

Fleet

Active

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.sunmetro.net, Sun Metro – official website Bus transportation in Texas Transportation in El Paso, Texas