City responds to closing of Wyler Aerial Tramway

The El Paso City Council marked the closure of the Wyler Aerial Tramway as a high priority for the state legislature.

The tramway was closed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department on Sept. 18, following an engineering analysis deeming the tramway as unsafe.

El Paso mayor Dee Margo, who was part of the state legislature in 2011, said the department had fallen behind on maintaining the structures.

“Sometimes we feel like we’re step children out here,” Margo said. “They should be taking care of it and they should be doing the maintenance for it. It’s under their purview. If it’s supposed to be operated, it’s supposed to be operated. Discovering significant safety issues from lack of maintenance is irresponsible, from my part.”

Replacement and improvements to the tramway will cost the state millions that aren’t in Texas Parks and Wildlife’s budget.

(Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez. Writing by Jose Corral)

Today, Council asked the El Paso delegation to ask the state legislature to work the current budget to have Texas Parks and Wildlife to safe-proof the tramway.

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the tramway had been operating well beyond its lifetime.

ABC-7 reached out to state legislators to see if any plans are being worked for the Texas Parks and Wildlife budget but there has yet to be a response.

The Texas Legislature is expected meet in January of 2019.