Sun Metro Transit Terminal Move Faces Heavy Opposition

By Martin Bartlett

EL PASO — The city’s plan to move the Sun Metro Downtown Transit Terminal faced a new onslaught of opposition Wednesday afternoon.

Community leaders in the Union Plaza and residentialdistricts don’t want the city’s public bus transportation to set up headquarters in their neighborhood. They voiced their opposition in a meeting Wednesdayof the Central Business Association at the Camino Real Hotel.

Citing city streets as ‘too narrow’ to accomodate bus traffic, opponents living and operating near the convention center said the new terminal just ‘doesn’t belong’ in their area. Union Plaza Association’s Gilbert Guillen expressed the concern of business and property owners in the district.

“Our streets just cannot accommodate that — Union Plaza was designed to be a mixed use district — not a bus terminal,” Guillen said.

Sun Metro said the proposed terminal would offer new and more efficient amenities such as expanded restrooms and air-conditioned waiting areas. Officials with Sun Metro made a presentation to the business leaders that included data collected from its riders that showed support for the move.

Many of the San Jacinto plaza business owners feel that the pedestrian traffic surrounding the bus terminal and that directly results from riders coming and going would effectively disappear if the terminal were moved.

Conversely, club owners and residents said the foot traffic brought in by adding the terminal would do little or nothing to increase its business.