Northeast will soon see Brio bus system

Wednesday Sun Metro hosted a community meeting in northeast El Paso.

The meeting was held to share details on the Dyer Street Brio project.

The bus system will connect the community from downtown to the future Northgate transfer center.

Sun Metro officials say the Brio system on El Paso’s west side has been a success.

Groundbreaking for the northeast Brio system will begin in mid- February.

Wednesday night the Brio’s blue beacon illuminated the sky while riders patiently waited for the next bus.

“I ride the bus every day, Monday thru Friday,” Frank Hernandez said.

Hernandez tells ABC-7 he rides the Brio because of its convenience.

“It has internet,” Hernandez said.

The UTEP student who also works on campus says the Brio has been timely and dependable.

That could be good news for future riders in the northeast.

“We hope to get 22, we have 20 now,” Jay Benasiak said.

Benasiak is director of Sun Metro. He is talking about the number of Brio stops that will run from the Downtown transfer center to the future Northgate transfer center.

The stops will include pay stations, covered canopies, cameras, new landscaping and lighting, something residents were concerned about.

“We got pedestrian lighting about every 30 feet, 15 feet, depending on how dark it is, we’ll put more out there,” Benasiak said.

Something unique to the northeast Brio stops will be art work and station sizes. Passengers can see four different sized Brio stops.

“We developed and designed the mini station just because there’s smaller businesses, smaller right of ways in a lot of cases, so we have to kind of fit it in,” Benasiak said.

Officials told ABC-7 the total cost of the northeast Brio system will be $36 million and the project should be completed in the middle of 2018.