Skip to main content

The El Paso Streetcar

Image
By

In November 2018, a part of El Paso's past returned to the city's streets- the El Paso Streetcar.  Forty-four years after the last streetcar ran on city streets, the city inaugurated a new service.

El Paso's first streetcar system began as horse-drawn cars in 1881.  Twenty years later, the first electric streetcars began operation.  The electric cars were operated by the El Paso Electric Railway Company.  At its peak, the El Paso Streetcar system consisted of 64 miles of track running seventeen lines.

By the end of the Second World War, El Paso was down to a single line, the line that linked El Paso to Juarez, Mexico.  This line was the only local transit line to serve two different countries.  It was highly popular with tourists and residents of both cities.

Well into the early 1970s, the streetcar was a popular option for travel from Juarez to El Paso and vice versa.  Here passengers board in El Paso bound for Juarez.  (Public Domain)

The El Paso Streetcar service to Juarez ended in 1973.  That year, a strike supporting former Mexican toll collectors blocked cars from entering Mexico, ending service there.  A year later, all streetcar service in El Paso stopped.  Over the next thirty years, numerous studies and proposals - including a light rail line or a people mover - were made to restore service between El Paso and Juarez.  Over time, the studies found limiting operations to El Paso the most feasible.

Fast forward to 2014, when the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority received $97 million to restore streetcar service to El Paso.  

The current El Paso Streetcar Route

The current El Paso Streetcar system is a 4.8-mile figure-8 loop that services the University of Texas - El Paso, Downtown, Government complexes, the Arts District, and the area near the international bridges.  The fleet consists of six restored PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) cars.  The restored cars are the same cars that ran along El Paso and Juarez streets from 1950 - 1974.  These cars first had been in operation in San Diego.  In 1950, El Paso purchased 20 PCC cars from the San Diego Electric Railway.  A year earlier, in 1949, San Diego had ended their streetcar network.  The cars were shipped from San Diego to El Paso and put into service.

Refurbished PCC Car #1511 has a perimeter seating arrangement.  This was a common feature on many of the Juarez-bound cars.

With the end of service in El Paso, nine PCCs moved into storage near El Paso International Airport.  Six of the nine were fully refurbished as part of the new streetcar line.  The cars were painted to match the livery of the 1950s.  Inside, the cars retain the look and feel of the classic PCCs but with modern amenities - air conditioning, wifi, wheelchair lifts, and bike racks.

Initially, the new service charged $1.50 per ride.  Currently, it is completely free to ride the El Paso Streetcar.  Typical service has four cars running at a time- so on average, you can expect a car to go by your stop every 15 minutes.

Beginning in September 2023, El Paso's streetcar system will operate seven days a week. Hours will be 7 am to 7 pm Monday-Thursday, 7 am to 11 pm Friday, Noon to 11 pm Saturday, and Noon to 6 pm Sunday.

Sources & Links:
Further Reading:
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans, LA)

By
Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City, this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct. Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P. Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Gove
1 comment
Read more

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

By
  There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
Post a Comment
Read more

Legacy of US Route 466 Part 5: Old Highway 58 through North Barstow

By
Old Highway 58 is a relinquished portion of what was once US Route 466 in the North Barstow area.  US Route 466 served the North Barstow area from 1933 until it was truncated to Baker during June 1964.  The segment would become the easternmost portion of California State Route 58 which remained as an active highway until 1996 when freeway south of downtown Barstow opened.  Old Highway 58 has numerous remaining Caltrans signs and more or less functions as an alternative northern bypass of downtown Barstow.   US Route 466 can be seen branching from US Route 91 in North Barstow on the 1953 United States Geological Survey Map. Part 1-Part 4 of the US Route 466 Legacy Series can be found below: Legacy of US Route 466 Part 1: California State Route 46 Legacy of US Route 466 Part 2: Tehachapi to Bakersfield  Legacy of US Route 466 Part 3: Morro Bay to Shandon via Rocky Canyon Legacy of US Route 466 Part 4: Hoover Dam Part 1; the history of US Route 466 and California State Route 58 in North B
Post a Comment
Read more