Transnational trolley debate

traveled between el paso and juarez again. would you ride them? that’s one of the questions the el paso city council is asking. abc-7’s maria garcia is live with new details: crews are already working on the trolley route in el paso. remember the state is paying for all 97 million dollars there. and the city hopes the federal government would pay for a trolley route between el paso and juarez, too. a streetcar used to cross the border but the mexican government stopped it in the 70s. the city of el paso is now researching what it would need to renew a partnership with mexico for a transnational trolley route. but before even approaching mexico – the city is checking where it could get the money for the trolley. possibly up to 150 million dollars. it’s checking on federal grants and a presidential permit. city officials say a trolley route has a 1 to 10 return in economic impact: “when you talk about benefits that this would have you’re talking about congestion, you’re talking about pollution of people idling on the street and most importantly you’re talking about lost productivity. you’re talking about 80 billion dollars a year of trade. you’re talking about students crossing the border, doctors crossing the border, you’re talking about all different types of workers.” the city plans to meet with congressman beto o’rourke to see if he can help. coming up at six, we’ll tell you why the trolley discussion led to tense words between the mayor and a city rep. at one point the mayor telling the city rep he’d turn off her microphone if she was disrespectful. the race for the republican presidential nomination has been fraught mobile newsroom with another story developing now… one week to go until we learn if las cruces school bus drivers will go on strike. the las cruces public schools superintendent says they’re not putting the children first…. but today, those drivers took to the streets to say otherwise; open our new mexico mobile newsroom with the story developing now… “hey ho! s-t-s, give us hope! the labor union that represents the bus drivers filed a motion to do away with a restraining order that prevents them from going on strike. it came just one day after a judge sided with l- c-p-s and ruled drivers must keep working. the bus driver’s labor union says that restraing order violates the national labor relations act. las cruces public schools outsources employees to drive students to and from school. the dispute is between the drivers and the company contracted for the job, which is not commenting on the case until after next week’s hearing. construction for the el paso trolley route is underway. and now the city is looking into a trolley route between el paso and juarez. abc-7’s maria garcia is live with details: there used to be a trolley between el paso and juarez – but that stopped in the 70s when the mexican government didn’t want it anymore. the city is now researching what it would take to bring it back. but the discussion got a little tense today when city rep lily limon questioned why the city hadn’t asked the mexican government if they were on board: 06:18 we’re going to move on because i think you got the headline you were lookign for. mayor i resent that comment very much and mayor for you to say that i say anythign for the media to cover it. you’re wrong. no i’m not wrong i get to watch it every tuesday night the mayor later apologized to representative limon saying he wasn’t trying to disrespect her and she accepted it. before even approaching mexico – the city has to check where it could get the money for the trolley. possibly up to 150 million dollars. it’s checking on federal grants and a presidential permit. city officials say a trolley route has a 1 to 10 return in economic impact: ” “the bridge wait times tha we have and the deteriorationg of services and the ability to cross the border in a safe and efficient way is a really big fat fail. it’s a big fat fail for this community and by failing to plan and by failint to anticipate alternative modes of trasnportation, of getting people and not just goods across the border safe and efficently we’re in a situation now where we could do more.” the city plans to meet with congressman o’rourke to see if he can help in getting the presidential permit and federal grants. then if it identifies funding, the city would approach the mexican government about sharing construction costs. a live look at the city from the abc-