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A small trolley cart was actually introduced to El Paso in 1902, replacing El Paso's mule car system, which had the town's pet "Mandy the Mule" taking passengers across the border and around the downtown area. As El Paso was growing in farming, manufacturing, mining, commerce, and the military, and needed an improved transportation system. Soon the streetcar was introduced to El Paso offering service to El Pasoans in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Now our city patrons can ride these vintage El Paso original color-scheme streetcars, but with modern amenities such as air conditioning and Wi-Fi.
The project began with the construction of 4.8 miles of track, 27 stops, a maintenance and storage facility and associated infrastructure, along with the remanufacture of streetcars that used to serve El Paso. The streetcar vehicles, which are the same streetcars that ran on El Paso streets from the 1950s until 1974, were transported to Brookville Equipment Corporation in Pennsylvania for restoration on December 2015. Now, six streetcars are returned to service with each painted in one of the three historic color schemes used in El Paso from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Make sure you download the free Official Visit El Paso App for a guided audio tour of the Streetcar stops! The tour features historical information on buildings along the Streetcar route as well as interesting, fun facts!
Streetcar riders can enjoy the following modern amenities:
Air conditioning
Free Wi-Fi
CCTV cameras
Bike racks (3 on each vehicle)
ADA accessibility
Free Wi-Fi on the streetcars
Modern propulsion
The Streetcar travels a 4.8-mile route in two loops through El Paso’s uptown and downtown areas. Both loops interconnect an international bridge, an array of businesses and restaurants, a baseball park, government buildings, historic neighborhoods, hospitals, and higher education institutions like the University of Texas at El Paso amongst many other prominent locations.
Passengers have a wide range of transportation options through Sun Metro services. They can board the Streetcar and transfer to a Sun Metro bus or on the Brio to get to other locations around the city.
For additional details visit http://www.sunmetro.net/streetcar.