(rshsdepot) El Paso, TX

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From the El Paso Times.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
Train depot to house new international transit  terminal
 
_By  David Crowder / El Paso Times_ 
(mailto:dcrowder_@_elpasotimes.com?subject=El Paso Times: Train depot to house new international transit terminal) 
Article Launched: 10/31/2007 12:00:00 AM  MDT




The city's Sun Metro transit system will  be moving out of its longtime home 
at Union Depot to make way for a new  international transit terminal, the El 
Paso City Council decided Tuesday.  
Sitting as the Mass Transit Board, the council selected the century-old train 
 depot and the 13 acres around it as the best of six possible locations for a 
 transit terminal for the 15 domestic and international bus lines that 
operate in  Downtown El Paso.  
Mike McAnelly, a senior planner with the Fort Worth engineering and planning  
company the city hired for professional advice, said that the city needs 3.7  
acres for a 34,000-square-foot terminal and that Union Depot offers plenty of 
 space for growth and new transit services.  
In 2005, the city planned to build a terminal and 600-space parking garage on 
 property bought from El Paso Electric Co. with federal transit funds for 
$2.5  million at Third and Santa Fe streets. The city abandoned plans for that  
3.2-acre site when it proved to be too small.  
McAnelly said there would not have been room at the Santa Fe terminal for  
additional bus bays needed to accommodate more companies in the fast-growing bus 
 transportation industry.  
City Manager Joyce Wilson told council members that because the city used  
Federal Transit Administration money to buy the Santa Fe site, it will have to  
be used for some other acceptable transit purpose or sold so that the money  
could be used by Sun Metro.  
"We have to sell that property," said East-Central city Rep. José Alexandro  
Lozano. 
McAnelly said his company won't be ready to say how much it might cost and  
how long it would take to convert the Union Depot site to meet the city's needs 
 until his company's next report to City Council in six weeks.  
If the city goes ahead with that plan, it will mean moving Sun Metro to  
another location, which has not been determined.  
McAnelly said the new terminal can offer an array of services to travelers,  
the large majority of whom will be from Mexico traveling legally in the United 
 States.  
He noted that the U.S. Border Patrol has requested space in the new terminal, 
 prompting reactions from several council members about the effect that might 
 have on business.  
"I wouldn't want to have a Border Patrol office in the bus terminal," said  
South-West city Rep. Beto O'Rourke.  
David Crowder may be reached at dcrowder_@_elpasotimes.com; 546-6194. 



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