As our regular readers know I hope that the Brio works out well for El Paso.
Brio is unfortunately excessively expensive. The city is planning to build the Alameda corridor next with a projected cost of $35.5 million of our local money. The project is not backed by feral funds.
If our public policy is to improve bus frequency and availability we can achieve much better results at much lower costs than with the Brio system. The system uses special bus stops that we are told are about one mile apart and the busses do not stop at regular bus stops. The first batch of busses cost us $790,000 each whereas our regular busses are $525,000. To make matters worse the Brio busses only offer 48 seats compared to the 38 seats on regular ones.
Scheduling more of the regular busses instead of installing a whole new system would give us better service without the inflated expense of the Brio system. This approach would also give us more flexibility and ability to respond to changing demographics.
60,000
The folks at Sun Metro told us through an article in El Paso Inc. that Brio ridership has reached 60,000 passengers a month.
I hope that is true but cannot see how. Maybe someone will enlighten me.
The way I figure it the busses make about 1,600 round trips on the Mesa route per month. Each round trip takes 60 minutes. The busses run on different schedules depending upon the time of day and day of the week as follows:
Monday – Friday 6AM-9AM and 3PM-6PM every 10 minutes.
Monday – Friday 9AM-3PM and 6PM-9PM every 15 minutes.
Saturday 9AM-6PM every 20 minutes.
Sunday no service.
Doing the math, I come to the 1,600 trips I mentioned before. If we take their number of 60,000 riders and divide it by 1,600 we come up to about 37 passengers per trip on average. That’s every trip–even early in the morning and late at night. There are about 20 bus stops on the route meaning that if the passenger load was evenly divided we would see two people at each bus stop every 10 to 20 minutes. The loads almost certainly are not evenly spread out so we should be able to see some busses more full than others.
I just don’t see it — literally. I have not seen many people get on the busses and I have not seen many get off the busses. I have not seen many people waiting at the bus stops and I have not seen any busses with more than a few people on them.
I hope that I am wrong.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Leaving the numbers aside, I am stunned by the schedules posted. I lived in Brussels, Madrid and Buenos Aires during my FS career. Each of those places had public transport running effectively 24-7, every ten minutes. If you want people to stop relying on their cars for everything, you cannot exclude travel after 6 pm and on Sundays!!!
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No you’re not wrong. Although the windows have been darkened, with the proper sunlight you can see the buses are empty. Like you state no pickups and no drop offs. Empty bus stops.
There is no way there are 60,000 passenagers. If anything, the only time you might have a few passenagers is during rush hour.
Why not use the Brio buses only during rush hours and then change to smaller buses ? I have feeling that they are going to find a way to force people to use the buses. Less parking, re routing of streets, traffic lights re synchronized, discount bus fare, increased gas taxes.
This is fiasco is a result of lame council member seeing something in another city, then returning with the goal of duplicating the effort. Then claiming it is new innovated thinking.
Thank goodness buses need a driver otherwise the buses would be empty.
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It sounds like the city is using the same fuzzy math they use to estimate construction costs for projects like the ballpark and the aquatic center. Maybe they are counting ghostriders.
Ridership is one thing. Revenue and expenses are another. You’ll never hear Sun Metro talk about profit/loss. Even at 60,000 riders per month at full fare of $1.50, the Brio revenue is only $90,000 per month or just over $1 million a year. That’s abysmal when you consider all the capital costs, operating costs, maintenance expenses, and the hugely expensive marketing campaign that is still ongoing.
If you check out the fare structure and all the discounts, it’s easy to see that the city is lucky if it’s even receiving 75 cents per rider on average. At 75 cents, the monthly income is only $45,000. Does that even cover driver wages?
I’m willing to bet that not a single member of city council, the mayor, nor anyone in city management has ridden the bus.They’re probably waiting for the Streetcars.
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I have recently traveled to South America, Europe and Asia. Of the 11 or so cities I visited, everyone of them has a public transit system that allowed me to explore the city without having to rent a car or take a taxi. Saying that Brio doesn’t work when only one of four lines in service is like saying telephones done work when only a few lines are connected to the system.
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Are you the same Geoffrey Wright who is an architect and who is a member of the city Building and Zoning Advisory Committee and a member of the Public Utility Regulation Board and who has provided design and construction administration services clients include the El Paso, Ysleta, San Elizario, Socorro, Canutillo, and Fabens School Districts as well as the City of El Paso, the County of El Paso,and the White Sands Missile Range?
If so, I can understand why you are a big supporter of this and other taxpayer-funded projects.
If you want to be an advocate for local government in this kind of forum, that’s fine and I’m sure they love you for it; but just as you have recused yourself from certain planning and zoning votes, you should disclose to readers that as a government contractor you have a dog in the fight when it comes to government spending. You might not have been involved in the Brio project, but you’re not just a casual tourist as your opening sentence suggests.
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I keep watching Brio buses as I pass them, and on one occasion I saw a passenger on a bus. In no way can I imagine 60,000 passengers a month using Brio. The Brio bus stops do not have people waiting for a bus either, and many times these observations are made during rush hour. Thus far, I agree with Reality Checker and Lone Rider that this fiasco sits right up there with the baseball stadium, moving city hall, and cost estimates for the aquatic center. Watching all these projects put in motion makes me concerned about El Paso’s taxpayers getting fed up with their tax burdens and moving on to brighter pastures.
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Every time I look at a Brio, it appears mostly empty.
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Ya know, I remember some few years back when the city tried out some of them ‘bend in the middle’ buses….. If’n I rightly recall, them ugly things was quietly disappeared. Seems the sand and dust blowing around here in El Paso jist raised hell with the parts that bent in the middle….
And now what’s next? trolley cars!
Remember, ya’all-“BOHICA” (Bend over-here it comes again)
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Potemkin
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Wow – I suppose that all 60,000 riders must pass directly in front of you, waving their arms and holding signs, in order for you to believe thenumbers. Yet, somehow I don’t believe even that would be enough. Geez….
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