Sun Metro Mass Transit Department, simply known as Sun Metro, is the

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

provider that serves

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...

. Consisting of buses and

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

service, it is a department of the City of El Paso, and the agency also serves the rest of El Paso County. The major hub is located at the Bert Williams Downtown Santa Fe Transfer Center in the surrounding block areas in Downtown El Paso. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .

History

Until 1987, Sun Metro was called Sun City Area Transit (SCAT). The agency was headquartered at the historic Union Depot in downtown El Paso until 2014, when it opened a new facility along Montana Avenue southeast of

El Paso International Airport El Paso International Airport (EPIA, , es, Aeropuerto Internacional de El Paso) is four miles (6 km) northeast of downtown El Paso, in El Paso County, Texas, United States. It is the largest civil airport in West Texas. It handled 3,516,91 ...

Facilities

* Bert Williams Downtown Santa Fe Transfer Center, 601 Santa Fe St. * Al Jefferson Westside Transfer Center, 7535 Remcon Cir. * Arturo Tury Benavides Cielo Vista Transit Center, 1165 Sunmount Dr. * Rorbert E. McKee Five Points Transit Center, 2830 Montana Ave. * Transit Operations Center, 10151 Montana Ave. * LIFT Facility, 5081 Fred Wilson Ave. * Arves E. Jones Sr. Northgate Transit Center, 9348 Dyer St. * Union Plaza Transit Terminal, 400 W. San Antonio Ave. * Nestor A. Valencia Mission Valley Transit Center, 9065 Alameda Ave. * Glory Road Transit Center, 100 E. Glory Road

Services

Brio

Sun Metro began operating its

express bus service Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indication ...

, named Brio, on October 27, 2014, serving the Mesa Street corridor (part of State Highway 20) between

Downtown El Paso Downtown El Paso is the central business district of El Paso, Texas. Historical downtown James Day, an El Paso historian, said that downtown's main business area was originally centered between Second Street and San Francisco Street. At a later ...

and the Westside Transfer Center in

Northwest El Paso Northwest El Paso (better known as West El Paso or the West Side) is an area of El Paso, Texas that is located on the west side of the Franklin Mountains. It is home to some of the most affluent neighborhoods within the city of El Paso, Texas. It h ...

. The frequency of Brio buses range from 10 minutes during weekday rush hours to 15 minutes mid-day from Monday to Friday, and 20 minutes on Saturdays; buses do not run on Sundays or holidays. The line uses 22 purpose-built curbside stations with shelters,

ticket vending machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance ...

s for pre-boarding payment, and real-time arrival information. The route runs in mixed traffic, but does use

transit signal priority Bus priority or transit signal priority (TSP) is a name for various techniques to improve service and reduce delay for mass transit vehicles at intersections (or junctions) controlled by traffic signals. TSP techniques are most commonly associat ...

. The Brio fleet consists of branded

New Flyer New Flyer is a Canadian multinational bus manufacturer, specializing in the production of transit buses. New Flyer is owned by the NFI Group, a holding company for several bus manufacturers. New Flyer has several manufacturing facilities in C ...

Xcelsior The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35' rigid, 40' rigid, and 60' articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are sold with a ...

articulated bus An articulated bus, also referred to as a banana bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is ...

es powered by

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...

, able to carry 72 total passengers and feature on-board

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...

, interior bike racks, and

passenger information A passenger information system, or passenger information display system, is an automated system for supplying users of public transport with information about the nature and the state of a public transport service through visual, voice or other m ...

monitors. The project cost $27.1 million to implement, using local funds and a

Federal Transit Administration The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administratio ...

grant. Sun Metro plans to open its second Brio route in 2018, extending the system to

Mission Valley Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Miss ...

via Alameda Avenue at a cost of $35.5 million. Further routes on Dyer Street and Montana Avenue are planned, with the former beginning construction as early as 2017.

El Paso Streetcar

The El Paso Streetcar is a

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

system in

, that opened for service on November 9, 2018, and uses a fleet of restored

PCC streetcar The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the ...

s that had served the city's previous system until its closure in 1974. The system covers (round trip) in two loops from

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

. The system was constructed under the authority of the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, but when the major construction was completed, around spring 2018, it was transferred to Sun Metro, for operation and maintenance. , construction of the system was projected to cost $97 million.

Fleet

Active

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.sunmetro.net, Sun Metro – official website Bus transportation in Texas Transportation in El Paso, Texas