Special Report: Millions Being Spent To Upgrade Sun Metro

On a good day, Carmen?s commute takes three to four hours and three different buses to get from her home in Horizon City to her job in West El Paso.

And once she gets to the West Side, she still has to walk uphill 20 minutes – much of the time without a sidewalk – to get to her job.

On this shivering, 25-degree winter morning, it has taken her five hours and she’s at work by 10 a.m. Carmen, who has been riding the bus for 30 years, said her commute can take a long time, depending on if the bus is late. According to Sun Metro, there was only one documented day in the last few months when Carmen?s bus was 40 minutes late.

?It’s still a work in progress,? said City Rep. Beto O?Rourke, who made part of the commute with Carmen and walked uphill to her job. ?We’re light years away from where we were in 2005 but not yet at the ideal transit system that we want to have.?

In 2005, when he came into office, El Paso City Council made it a priority to revamp the brittle Sun Metro bus system. In five years, the City of El Paso has spent $81 million on Sun Metro?s bus system.

O?Rourke has always had a thing for buses.

?I used to as a kid, and it shows you what kind of kid I was, used to get on the bus with a friend,? O?Rourke recalled. ?This is when we were like 12,13,14 years old and just joy ride around town on buses.?

But those joy rides weren?t always so pleasant.

?We had a lot of break downs, a lot of late shows for people waiting for the bus,? O?Rourke said. O?rourke admits the ride was uncomfortable at times, from the stifling heat in the summer to the bitter cold in the winer.

?So we’re out here today and it’s 25 degrees at 8:30 in the morning and if your bus doesn’t come that’s a hard thing,? O?Rourke said as he?s about to board a Sun Metro bus. ?You can tell it’s a 2010. This is the first bus bought in 2010, the design is newer, the system is state of the art, everything works, the heating and cooling, which is very important on a day like this.? In five years, $81 million has bought more than a hundred new buses that run on compressed natural gas. They produce 50 percent less pollutants than your personal car. The money also has bought shelters and four transfer centers with amenities, such as free Wi-Fi, real-time displays and temperature-controlled waiting rooms.

O?Rourke knows most riders take the bus out of necessity, not personal choice. O?Rourke and his colleagues want more.

Last July, El Paso City Council approved $136 million for a bus rapid transit system – $55 million will come from the city and the rest will be federal and state money.

?It’ll be comparable to a light rail system, or a trolley system,? O?Rourke said.

The buses will be a lot bigger, make fewer stops, and run every 10 to 15 minutes instead of every hour.

You?ll pay ahead of time, so there will be no waiting on the bus while passengers pay their fare. And the driver will be able to lengthen green traffic lights or shorten red lights.

For O?Rourke, it?s about trying to figure out what it will take for people to leave their cars at home and take the bus.

He hopes it?s the four bus rapid transit corridors that are planned. The first one, on Alameda, is slated to be finished in 2014.

?We’re going from a really terrible bus service when we first got into office in 2005, to a pretty good bus service today to a top of the line service with (bus rapid transit) BRT,? O?Rourke said. ?And then after that, maybe five, 10 years from now, you have a light rail system.? It?s an uphill challenge the city is betting more than $136 million of your dollars on. President Barack Obama?s administration budget proposal, announced this week, includes funding for transportation projects across the country.

More than $13 million is proposed to fund half of the city?s bus rapid transit Mesa corridor.

Congress still has to approve the budget.

Related Link:Link:Sun Metro Website