Shortly after yesterday’s post about BRIO (our new rapid transit system) was published I overheard a conversation between a Sun Metro bus driver and a passenger.
I don’t know if what I heard is true, so I may be guilty of spreading an unfounded rumor.
The passenger asked the driver when the BRIO system would be going into operation.
The driver responded that there may be some more delays since some of the BRIO stations have platforms that are too far above the surface of the street. In other words they don’t fit the new buses.
We should all hope that this is not true. If it is we will have yet another example of incompetence at the city.
Then later in the day I saw two articles on the same page of the Times. One was talking about the tuberculosis scare at a local hospital and the other told us about our public health department’s spokesman wanting us not to worry about Ebola since “Public health officials already have a system in place with local hospitals to detect, report and track contagious diseases”.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I noticed at the Sun Metro website that route 18 is no longer listed. 18 was an express which could get a passenger from the west side terminal to downtown in about 15 minutes. BRIO, with all it’s amenities and cost, will not be able to do the same.
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Yes, route 18 has disappeared from several of the listings on the web site.
It is however still listed on the “service improvements” page. http://www.sunmetro.net/service_improvement.html
Maybe someone will tell us if it is still running.
Brutus
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Maybe it only runs during baseball season. If you need it to get to the ballpark, Foster and Hunt can get it reinstated.
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The same public health spokesperson who made that statement was also quoted yesterday as saying it’s “business as usual” here in El Paso and that there is nothing to worry about. Today, he says that the public health department has “boots on the ground” going door to door, trying to find babies that might have been exposed to TB at Providence. More than 200 of the 853 families cannot even be located. That doesn’t exactly sound like business as usual.
What does sound like business as usual is that taxpayers are funding this effort, which resulted from the negligence of a for-profit hospital. If you require an ambulance, you’ll pay for it. Providence should be charged for all the work that is being done by the public health department and government employees.
If an ebola victim shows up at Providence, coughing up blood, they will be given allergy medicine and sent on their way.
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I am more comfortable with Health tracking leads than with Providence.
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That’s fine, but Providence should pay for that public assistance. That’s my point. And to say that it’s business as usual doesn’t give me much comfort with city health leadership.
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Dear Brutus…
I am proud of you that your ride is the EP Metro System….
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I watched today as a worker was elevated in a cherry picker to the top of the Brio sign at Mesa and Sun Bowl. He carefully touched up the paint on the sign, while two others painted white stripes on the platforms. Nearly two hours later when I passed by the intersection, they were still doing it…one has to wonder what this is all about.
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