How much of the street car project has been done at this point?
Should it bother us that they already have a $4 million overrun on the $97 million project?
It seems that they had problems with utility lines that were not part of the original specification.
Who would have thought that water, sewer, electrical, and communication lines would be buried in the path?
Remarkable, really remarkable.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Welcome to El Paso, Texas…
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Don’t look for sympathy here. I still say this is a Trolley (notice they aren’t using that term anymore?) to and from nowhere.
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It was supposed to be “shovel ready.” Of course, what was being shoveled is open to interpretation 🙂
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Has anyone driven up and down the route? Think about the tourists riding this…past the convenience store and the old apartment buildings through the hospital corridor…
While they ride they can watch the Brio bus and the “regular bus” on the same streets…and the traffic jams created by forcing three different transit operations into two-lane streets. (At one point on Stanton they have to run the trolley line down the middle of the street to avoid cutting off fire and moving van access to the Fairmount building.)
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What tourists?
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Brutus, surprised you haven’t somehow linked it to the EPISD bond election and blamed EPISD for the cost overrun…Perhaps that is Monday’s entry.
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Should have mentioned that attendance at events such as the symphony has dropped substantially given the difficulty of finding parking and crossing the torn-up streets…
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Six comments and no one has yet blamed the trolley overrun on Obama or Shapleigh. But the day is still young.
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Yep, . . . warned them on several Blogs, 2 years ago that they would never know what utility lines would have to be moved. Many would have to be reinforced GREATLY as a steel wheel will be constantly vibrating and jiggling the lines under the street.
Oh, well, the City Council doesn’t read the blogs or the El Paso Times or even CARE.
They still get paid. . . no matter how WRONG they are.
They will later find out that some of these lines will be broken within the first few months and have to be dug up again and the Trolleys will have to go into storage for months. . . while the utilities are dug up again.
Businesses and homes along the route will feel vibrations and Clickly-clack, clickly-clack, clickly-clack . . . all day long.
Good luck trying to THINK and type at the same time while THAT is going on !
If and WHEN a Trolley breaks down. . . it stops ALL of the Trolleys behind them.
There was a REASON the Trolleys were discontinued back when they were. THERE are buses now !
Watch now for the Fire Department to FINALLY come out and say . . . “We cannot fight a fire in taller buildings downtown because of the Trolley wires hanging all over the place. Our ladders cannot go up.”
Watch for this. . . . .
I. . . contacted the Fire Department a YEAR AGO to go to City Council and discuss this. Did they? No.
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Nothing is ever like the politicians, public officials say it is . Projects ALWAYS take longer than THEY say, ALWAYS cost MORE than THEY tell US. THEY either “misrepresent” everything to US or they just LIE to US. The “Society of Corruption” in El Taxo.
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Do ya suppose them bicycle lanes will infer with the trolleys? They shoulda built that trolley line from Santa Fe bridge to the Medical Center. Then them Anchor baby mommas would have a nice ride straight ta the hospital!!
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That is what happens when you have engineers that aren’t field experienced but just office workers.
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