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Getting Around: Albuquerque, NM

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Albuquerque Essentials

Zero Fares
Transit app is accurate
Rapid bus line: ART

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Pros

Free transit
ART is very fast

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Cons

ART headways could be better

Traveled April 2025

Light blue bus labeled ART at left, stopped at outdoor station with white overhang. Doors open, passengers in distance. Multi-story building at left.

Tree-lined sidewalk in small walkable downtown, cars parked at left, enclosed area with high tables on the right, few pedestrians in distance. Sun shining directly at camera from distance, casting long shadows.

Unpainted brick crosswalk in foreground. Green-painted bike lane with flex-posts behind. Curb and colorful buildings in background.

Impression

When I travel, I’m not looking to have the perfect experience, I’m looking to see what’s there, so I don’t mind if it’s not perfect.

Visiting a new city, I’ll tend to arrive and stay downtown. In the first few hours of poking around, I’ll learn if it’s a “downtown town.”

Do people do things downtown? Is downtown vibrant? Is it well kept or run down? Do people hang out downtown?

Brick sidewalk. Textured ramp in foreground. Light post with “Amtrak” sign pointing right. Road at left, parking garage in distance across the street. Some sort of public art far on the right. Daytime.

Not much by the Amtrak station. But not too far from downtown.

Tree-lined sidewalk. Buildings at left, fences set off an area but no chairs or tables within. Road at right, lined with parked cars on the far side, and several buildings. Faded bike sharrow painted in road. Late afternoon.

Downtown was pretty empty.

Albuquerque is not a downtown town. Downtown looked like it had recently been renovated and upgraded, mixed use, bike lanes… but there were very very few people around. It felt eerie.

Some things were open — I went to a food court that seemed OK, popped into a bar for some pinball, and got some pizza — but by and large I was getting “don’t linger” vibes.

Wall menu for “JC’s New York Pizza Department” restaurant, in front of a wood paneled wall. Soda dispensers below, and point of sale system.

I had to try Albuquerque’s idea of NY pizza. It was perfectly fine pizza and not at all authentic.

A friend of a friend lives in Albuquerque and loves it, so I checked in with her. She confirmed that downtown isn’t super happening. Apparently it was bouncing back, but then COVID kinda sucked the life out of it. She recommended a different area to check out the next day.

The area she recommended was right along a rapid bus route. Perfect!

Pink street light and sidewalk at left. Street at center, various buildings in background. Dramatic darkening blue sky with scattered clouds, at dusk.

Still not much activity downtown, but the skies were breathtaking.

Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART)

Albuquerque has a rapid bus line, ART. It’s fast, with limited stops, and travels more or less East-West across the entire width of the sprawling metro area.

ART reminds me of the EmX in Eugene, Oregon. Stations are typically in the median of a boulevard, with buses arriving on either side. Between stations, buses travel either direction in a single bi-directional lane in the middle of the street. Obviously, this means they likely have a dispatcher making sure two buses don’t head out to the same stretch of road at full speed, right at each other.

Bus station in median of road, facing directly down the road. Garbage can, tree, and crosswalk and light leading left only. Bus Only lane painted red on either side. White overhang in foreground. Bright blue sky with scattered white and light gray clouds.

View from a median ART station.

Screenshot from Transit app. Downtown Albuquerque, red and green route lines run east-west, single maroon line north-south. Search box reads “Options near 100 First St SW”. Arrival times for ART 777 and ART 766 below.

Map of ART (red and green east-west) and Amtrak (maroon north-south) on Transit app.

Bus interior, facing sideways. Two seats facing forward (to the right). Butterfly illustration on window. Building with multiple arches visible outside.

Inside the ART bus.

The ART bus ran great. I wish they’d run more often… I think it was about every 15 minutes… but it got me there. I went to Nob Hill, got some bubble tea, poked into a game store and a friendly bookstore.

Wooden table with a Boba Tea cup with white liquid at rear left, and three colored sharpies at front right.

Got some good boba!

Heading Out

I hurried back to make sure I caught my train, but it ended up delayed a couple hours. I found an upstairs restaurant nearby with a good view of the Amtrak station.

In Albuquerque, I re-learned a lesson that I’d learned in Pittsburgh (and that I really should have known growing up in LA): Some cities are not downtown cities.

The trickiest part about visiting a new place is figuring out what part of town is cool to poke around in. And if I’m just stopping there one night as part of a cross-country Amtrak expedition, I might not find the cool part of town, and it can leave me with an unfairly poor impression of the place.

Bright blue sky and scattered clouds. Train tracks, parked train, and signs reading “Downtown Albuquerque” and “Rail Runner” bottom left. Southwest-style bus depot bottom right.

The sky in Albuquerque hits different.

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Lesson Learned:

In some cities, the interesting areas aren’t always obvious.

For best results, check in with locals (or ex-locals, or friends of locals) ahead of time for one or two places or areas to check out.

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