Tuesday, October 2, 2018

El Paso Streetcars Part 1: The Beauty of Buying Things we Can’t Afford




El Paso Streetcars: 
The Beauty of Buying Things we Can’t Afford
By Raymundo Eli Rojas


Like you, I have been enamored with trolleys and streetcars.  I remember the stories of my parents, about how they use to take the trolley to Downtown El Paso to watch films at the Plaza and other theaters.  I was recently in Kansas City and I took the streetcar from the Union Depot up to the Power and Light District.  It was magical.


So don’t get me wrong, I love these things and I will probably be one of the first in line to ride them when they open here in El Paso.


Then I have to consider my property taxes.  El Paso Speaks posted an article some time ago, “Almost as bad as you can get,” El Paso has the second highest property taxes in the nation when looking at the 50 largest cities in the country.

 It’s nice to do all these things in El Paso that we can’t pay for, to run up the city’s debt, to shift money over to things like Southwest University Ballpark or the trolley, and suck that money out of other areas in our city where those funds are solely needed -- our roads.


There is one thing about streetcars that has come out in the recent academic literature and urban studies articles, streetcars (like Southwest University Ballpark) don’t pay for themselves and ridership declines after the initial opening.


In El Paso, the streetcars will soon be running from Downtown up to UTEP. The Texas Department of Transportation announced a major hurdle recently in that they would be replacing the two of the bridges the El Paso streetcar would go over.  Did the City of El Paso not consider this? Probably not.


We are looking at a new series here and this first article will look at ridership.

Read Part 2

Also see:

"KFOX14 Investigates: Off the tracks, streetcar ridership plummets."