April 7, 2008
The new shape and direction of the El Paso’s bus system may start to come into focus at today’s City Council meeting.
Acting as the Mass Transit Department’s board, the council likely will approve a proposal to move the Downtown hub of bus stops around San Jacinto Plaza to the site of the Union Plaza parking garage and transit center several blocks south and west.
The council also could take another step toward the consolidation of commercial bus companies in the Union Depot, the historic red brick rail station that can be seen from Interstate-10 east rounding into Downtown.
These are key items because the council already has established the goal of making mass transit a viable alternative to vehicle travel. Part of that goal involves consolidating transportation services -- including the private long-range carriers, such as Greyhound, El Paso Los Angeles Limousine and Las Americas -- around a Downtown hub, which eventually would include, in the shorter term, the city's Bus Rapid Transit, and in the longer term, light rail.
The proposals are not without concern, particularly the move of Sun Metro's bus hub to the parking garage. There, some merchants, and some residents, have raised the question of how the increased traffic would impact the businesses and the neighborhood. [kvia, up move faces opposition][npt letter, move a 'fait accompli']
But planners hired by the city said that after reviewing the best places for a passenger terminal, Union Plaza's parking garage was the best deal for the city.
The review was performed by Carter Burgess, a Fort Worth consulting group that in the fall presented to City Council a survey of locations for the international transit terminal. Mike McAnelly, a consultant with Carter Burgess, said some of the information developed in that survey was used to determine the best place for the Sun Metro passenger terminal.
McAnelly gave three reasons why the Union Plaza parking garage was the best location for the passenger hub:
-- No. 1, he said, was the city's desire to return San Jacinto Plaza to its place as the historic central plaza, a public place in Downtown El Paso, and to support the Downtown Plan.
-- Second, McAnnely said, to increase use of the parking garage in Union Plaza, a mixed-use district that includes a neighborhood and an entertainment zone. He said the parking garage, which cost $8 million and was completed several years ago, "fills up weekend evenings or major events, but much of time is underutilized and represents an asset and an opportunity." The garage was built with an 80 percent federal grant, which means the city paid only 20 percent of the cost.
-- The third reason, McAnelly said, was "the availability of suitable locations close to Downtown that could accommodate activity." The parking garage at Union Plaza, he said, would cost less than other options looked at -- about $2.4 million for curb realignments in the area, an awning around the building, shelters along portions of San Antonio Street, and other "passenger amenities inside and outside the terminal."
When asked why the move even was being considered, since the three reasons for moving all related to city plans as opposed to passenger requests, McAnelly said that "the basic tenet of the challenge we were given was improving service."
Given that, he said, the review then used the other considerations previously mention to come up with the best location.
Part of the review was a survey, which asks such questions as whether passengers feel safe at San Jacinto Plaza and whether they had been to the Union Plaza parking garage. The survey also asked what amenities passengers would like to see: Responses included a food court, public restrooms vending machines and a covered waiting area.
The survey of 15 questions was conducted on Friday, Feb. 3, from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with four people receiving 283 responses.
The 14th question was: "Do you know that Union Plaza Transit Terminal has enclosed-climate controlled waiting areas, seating, public restrooms and other amenities?" To that, 66 percent answered "yes." The final question was passenger opinion about the move, to which 84 percent answered they were in favor.
The survey followed a Jan. 23 public meeting on the proposal.
City Rep. Beto O'Rourke said that City Council made the policy decision to move buses from the Plaza.
"Passengers didn’t come knocking on my door saying 'we want to get out of San Jacinto,'" he said. "It was a policy decision at council, we wanted to move from that space, and provide a better level of service for Sun Metro passengers in the process."
The Plaza is a key public space, he said, and O'Rourke listed three reasons why the City Council made the decision: A desire to make it a "true public space," more like a park than a bus stop; the activity in the area with reconstruction under way at the Mills Building, and activity expected soon at the Plaza Hotel; and "third, the vision this Mass Transit Board has for our system."
That vision, he said, includes Bus Rapid Transit, and eventually, light rail, which would use the Union Depot as the hub. McAnelly said that the estimated cost for the Union Depot hub would be about $13.4 million, and City Manager Joyce Wilson said some of that cost could be borne by private bus companies such as Greyhound, which already is negotiating a potential concession agreement.
The agenda item for Tuesday's meeting calls for discussion and action "concerning the Long Range Transit Development Plan, including the bus rapid transit component and the proposed configuration of seven (7) buses of the current forty (40) bus order in a bus rapid transit type of configuration."
Tim Omick, who runs Sun Metro for First Transit, the company contracted by the city to run the bus company, said that making the temporary bus stops along Missouri and Franklin the permanent location for a passenger hub would not work because of the safety issue. Passengers hurrying to catch transfer buses have been darting into traffic, leading to the proposal to close Franklin to all but buses traffic as a temporary measure. That proposal is to be discussed at the Tuesday meeting as well.