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

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l
3 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Interstate 210 the Foothill Freeway

By
The combined Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor of the Foothill Freeway is approximately 85.31-miles.  The Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor begins at Interstate 5 at the northern outskirts of Los Angeles and travels east to Interstate 10 in Redlands of San Bernardino County.  Interstate 210 is presently signed on the 44.9-mile segment of the Foothill Freeway between Interstate 5 and California State Route 57.  California State Route 210 makes up the remaining 40.41 miles of the Foothill Freeway east to Interstate 10.  Interstate 210 is still classified by the Federal Highway Administration as existing on what is now signed as California State Route 57 from San Dimas south to Interstate 10.  The focus of this blog will mostly be on the history of Interstate 210 segment of the Foothill Freeway.   Part 1; the history of Interstate 210 and California State Route 210 Interstate 210 (I-210) was approved as a chargeable Interstate during September of
Post a Comment
Read more