Following up on the unfortunate waste that is Brio I got to thinking about the construction costs.
According to their web site the Brio system for Mesa street cost $27.1 million.
They bought 10 buses for $790,000 each giving us a total of 7.9 million dollars for the buses. That leaves 19.2 million dollars to build the bus stops.
Once again according to their web site there are 11 areas where the buses stop with each area having two stops, one on the north bound side and the other on the south bound side of Mesa. That gives us 22 stops. Actually they have yet to build the permanent one on the north bound side of Monticello and they only had to build the south bound one at the Glory Road transfer station.
I’m going to leave the number of new stops at 22 for purposes of this post.
Taking the 19.2 million dollars and dividing it by 22 stops gives us a cost of $872,727 per stop. According to our local tax and spend authorities the average house in El Paso is valued at $124 thousand on the tax rolls. That puts the cost of each of the stops at about the equivalent of seven homes.
We could have added regular buses without the special stops if we wanted to have more frequent service.
It gets worse
Of the $27.1 million the Mesa corridor cost, $19.6 came from feral and state funds, leaving us with a $7.5 million bill.
Sun Metro plans to build the Alameda corridor next. The Alameda corridor is projected to cost $35.5 million. Who will pay that bill? The answer is local taxpayers. Our city council voted to pay for the project with local funds to show El Paso’s commitment to mass transit.
Can this be stopped?
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I have lived in some places and traveled in other where mass transit works very well. Perhaps it is the contrarian in me, but I think the managers of Brio and/or the rest of public transportation should go in a different direction in regard to charging to ride the bus. They should look into not charging riders at all. There are a lot of unseen costs associated with collecting bus fares and accounting for and managing those fares which may result in very little benefit to the City. It is clear that decisions have been made that by God El Paso is going to have a public transportation system. The worst thing about having expensive buses going up and down the street is that the buses, much of the time, are empty. I have thought that being a bus driver must be a lonely job. We might do well to just not charge for the ride and perhaps we would realize other benefits. It is hard to pass up “free.” Fewer cars pumping exhaust fumes into the air would benefit the health of the community and reduce the brown haze over the town. As ridership increases, public transportation systems improve in service delivery with a reduction in traffic. Even the number of auto accidents would decrease if there were fewer vehicles on the street for the buses to hit.
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Max, what a grand idea.
Maybe it could be free until ridership builds up. Or maybe we could let riders contribute if they wished–the proceeds to go to some public cause like parks.
Brutus
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Outstanding! Let’s write to our reps and mayor and city manager! And unless and until it can be explained why we must have these huge reinforced bus stops, STOP constructing them! Was this gigantic boondoggle EVER presented to the public beyond the generally uninformed discussion by council???Spend some money putting up shelters at bus stops so riders do not have to wait in the open air, blasted by wind/sandstorms/occasional rain/etc…
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Even the new shelters do not provide much protection against wind and sandstorms or rain because the art screens across the front are easily penetrated and the ends are totally open. The designers went for style over substance and failed on both counts because the art is hideous.
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Let’s get real! The biggest clients are the maids and gardeners and people from Juarez who come to work, work, shop, work, visit, work. Just look at the Westside express that goes from the depot behind the Wal-mart on Mesa to Segubdo Barrio. It’s full in the morning and in the afternoon. There’s always a cried at the Wal-mart stop. Meanwhile, the Brio is empty. Why? It’s not convenient, and it’s not needed. But like most every thing this cabal promotes, no one bothers with the feasibility of major projects in this town, but certain lucky well-connected types make millions from these routes to nowheresssss.
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