El Paso Essentials
- Streetcars and Buses.
- Streetcars are free. Pay for buses with Ride Sun Metro app.
- No live tracking for streetcars.
- Bus frequency is very poor.
Pros
- Streetcar is cool and useful.
- Free streetcar rides.
Cons
- Very poor bus frequency.
- No live streetcar tracking.
Traveled April 2026
Streetcar
The El Paso Streetcar is lovely. It’s one of those old classic models like in San Francisco and north Philadelphia.
The trains are clean, the interiors look new, and they have vertical bike racks inside. They say they have modern propulsion systems, and yes, they move pretty well, even up hills. One of them had a constant loud low humming, but that was literally my only gripe onboard.
They seemed pretty well used, most of the seats were full on my rides.
The route is a single figure 8, which went to a bunch of actually useful places, all the way from the edge of the Mexican Border to the University of Texas. I rode it a lot.
One time the driver yelled at me for standing too close to the door. Oops!
My only gripes with the streetcar are frequency and tracking. It comes about every 20 minutes, which is just long enough to be an unpleasant wait, especially if it’s hot out. 10-15 would be a big improvement. There is also no live tracking, and sometimes they run a bit behind, so you have really no idea when it’s coming.
Bus
I didn’t ride the buses in El Paso. This was partially because the streetcar took me plenty of places I wanted to go, and the downtown was compact and good for walking.
However, it was also because the bus frequency was really poor. Some of them came once an hour.
This may be because they seemed like some sort of semi-BRT buses. They would go further away, with fewer stops, probably faster. But also, they didn’t come too often, so I couldn’t just hop on on a whim to try them out. And I’d have to find a far off destination to make a ride useful.
I’ll have to try again next time. I do hope there will be a next time, I really liked El Paso.
Tickets
Before my first ride, I didn’t realize the streetcar was free. That info was a couple layers deep on the “Streetcar” page on their website rather than on the front page. On the app, they only tell you it’s free on the “My Streetcar” page, not “My Tickets.”
So I bought a day pass for $3.50. When I showed it to the streetcar driver, he said “It’s free.”
Oops!
If you do need to ride the bus in El Paso, set the app up ahead of time. It asks for a lot of information, including an email verification, and you have to enter your credit card info manually (no Apple Pay).
Walking
Downtown El Paso was pretty walkable. It has a tight grid, a dense(ish) downtown, a district with a bunch of Mexican import shops, a little quarter with gay bars, and multiple good coffee spots.
When the weather is nice, you can wander around a lot and have a great time. There’s also a lot of cool spots up a hill. It’s not the most friendly walk but it’s doable… I’d recommend the streetcar for that.
The issue is that it gets hot. I was there in April, so it was actually gorgeous out and I had cloud cover for part of the trip. But when the sun was out, it was already pretty aggressive, and I found myself looking for shade.
In April, it was already warm enough to enjoy a paleta. I can only imagine how rough the heat gets in the summer.
